Ska's 28 Macro Algae Display

[skabooya]

Hey,
My tank came in. Updates will be posted on this main page as well as in the thread itself to allow for quicker viewing and commenting.
Specs will also be on this page as well as other imperitive information.

Past thread leading up to this one: http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?...14&hl=30gal

http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=42302
Bought So Far:
Tank: 28gal 36x12x15" or 92x30x38cm total cost: $135
Ebay order: Hagen Glo Light fixture 36" 2x39 T5 HO Total cost: $144.96
Progressive Reef order: ATI blue+, ATI aquablue special: $83.68
Orders from JLA: OA Test Kit $54.95
Fiji Pink Substrate 20lbs $32.65
Coral Frenzy Food 56g $27.95
Hydor K1 $31.95
Hydor K2 $39.95
IO Salt 50gal $16.45
Sm Proscraper $5.55
NL All purpose food 80g $7.45
Seachem Reef Plus 500ml $10.55
Seachem Trace 500ml $10.55
Ebo Jagger 100watt heater $27.95
Tunze 9002 PS $179.85
Vertex Refractometer $49.95
JLA Total:$587.66
Bulk Reef Supply Order: 25lbs Eco Rox with shipping etc
Bulk Reef Supply Total: $114.13
walmart gloves: $5
Petland: LR $33
Peppermint shrimp $27 ------------------------------------Dead
Percula clowns x2 $27= $54
Dragons tongue macro algae (free)
JLA: reef-roids $24.95
calcium addative $12.55
Kent iron and manganese additive $7.95
long proscraper $20.75
Coral from hockey nut $110:
1 multi coloured ricorda
1 purple branching gorgonian------------------Not enough light Dead
3 rhodactus mushrooms
1 pink zoas
1 ice blue cloves---------------------------- Died in Shipping
1 green spotted mushrooms------------------ Melted
red macro algae
Coral from TangDaddy $110
3 zoa colonies--------------------------------2 remaining
1 yellow/brown gorgonian----------------------Not enough light Dead
1 green with orange spot mushroom-------------Melted
1 blue mushroom
1 superman Rhodactus--------------------------Fell on sandbed Melted
1 blue ric
1 iceblue cloves----------------------------Died in shipping
Petland: $70
hawian feather duster
11 head candycane--------------------------Died during green water battle
2 pieces of LR with macroalgae (red bubble and calpura)
Husband: $80
Coral Beauty----------------------------Died for unknown reason suddenly
Petland :$30
Yellow feather duster


Running Total: $1677.31

Free: Blades (science lab pilliging)
Turkey Baster (christmas gift)
1 5gal restaurant ice cream bucket (from uncle, looking to get more)
1 margarine container for food mixing and fert dosing
2 1 gal milk jugs for tap water top off.

Yet to get:
1 5 gal bucket

Coral i still want:
Rics, yumas and other mushrooms
Cloves
Sponges
Inverts and Fish i am considering (not all in the one tank):
Skunk cleaner shrimp
Fan worms
Coral Beauty angelfish
Lots of gobies
6 line wrasse




http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/skabooya/28gal004.jpg
June 10, 2010
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/skabooya/June102010.jpg
July 17, 2010
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/skabooya/July2010.jpg
July 26,2010
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/skabooya/saltytankJuly26.jpg
Aug 2010
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/skabooya/aug2010.jpg
November 2010
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/skabooya/November2010.jpg
July 2011
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/skabooya/FTSJuly2011.jpg

[lorenz0]

koralia 3 will be way to much flow in that tank. your going to be running into problems but a nano and a 1 would be great.

If you plan on running a HOB fung run a AC110 with cheato and live rock, i still think my AC50 barely gets the job done.

but i like where your heading, should be a cool finished project

[karazy]

i think this will look kool. i like the size of tank for a reef.
i expect great thignswill come out of this tank

[skabooya]

I was thinking a K3 may be too much flow but after a lot of reading i found that the nanos arent really that great and the K1's are good but not enough flow for my tank and they are large. I would need at least a K2 or 2 K1's for my tank because it is long. But I also read quite a few threads that state go with one K higher than you would want.
Also i wanted a medium turnover. Its not needed in a softy tank but i wanted to make sure to keep debris suspended and i wanted enough flow that there would not be many if any dead spots. With 1 Koralia i will have a variety of high flow and low flow areas so that i can have a variety of corals that like different areas.
But I would love to know what kinds of things will go wrong with that amount of flow in a tank this size. People who have SPS have a lot more flow than that.

I would like to have an AC110 however im not in any rush. I know the AC i have is bairly adequate but its just for minor things like polyfibre and carbon; its not a fuge.

I agree i love this size tank. When i saw it i had to have it. I hope it turns out good but im a beginner so we shall see. The hardest part will be getting the coral. My lfs has no selection and they will not bring anything in. FW no problem but anything SW is a no. Anything i get will need to be from online vendors or local reefers (none that i know of where i live so im counting on you guys)

[OCDP]

Just my two cents, but I have a Koralia 4 in my 20g. I also have a Seio 820. My 20g isn't as long as yours, but it's do-able. It all comes down to placement of the pumps, and rocks. I would say go with more flow than less.. but that is my opinion, as you can work around it.

That tank dose look pretty shallow though.. You'd probably have to set the K4 on the bottom facing upwards a bit.. either that or go with 2 Seio 820's. I love the Seio's .. I think I prefer them over the Koralia. They seem more solid, and keep a steady constant flow, whereas I find the Koralia all over the place, with weak spots and strong spots. And yes, they are large, even more so in a small tank!

Also.. to add, if you want something big and pink, on the verge of red as a centerpiece.. I'd recommend a nice big Brain Coral. They are pretty easy to keep, very hardy (at least in my experience) . Blue corals seem somewhat rare, but ric's are commonly sold in blue. Blue zoo's are amazing too.

[skabooya]

Thanks for the input OCDP.
I agree more flow is better than too little, however i also dont want the shallow sand bed blowing around everywhere, thats why i decided K3. Also i like the idea of the random water movement. A higher water movement coral can be placed in the higher flow area as apposed to a coral that likes lower flow.

Yes blue corals are kinda rare but thats okay i plan on taking the hobby very slowly so im not in any rush to pack the tank full of blue corals in 6 months. I just want to have a few small frags and watch everything grow and take over the tank to give that wild look.

Thanks for the brain suggestion. I do have it on my list but im worried that if the centerpiece area is on the rocks (it will depend on rock placement) then i would tear the flesh. Brains belong on the sand. But, it is on my list of maybe.
Also on my maybe list are but are only on the list because of colour:
RBTA
pink birds nest
sun coral
group of feather dusters or coco worms or christmas worm
flower tree coral red/orange
Carnation tree coral
Orange tree gorgonian
Yellow tree gorg
red sea fan
red brain
blasto
red macro algae like kelp or red grape
*Again this list is just for the colours not what i intend to keep* The list will be edited down to no heavy feedings, non agressive species and species that do not need calcium comming out the yin yang.

This tank will not have a lot of coral. Just a few species to grow out. I saw some electric blue shrooms as well that i am now dreaming about in there too. :)

[whatcaneyedo]

Thanks for the input OCDP.
I agree more flow is better than too little, however i also dont want the shallow sand bed blowing around everywhere, thats why i decided K3. Also i like the idea of the random water movement. A higher water movement coral can be placed in the higher flow area as apposed to a coral that likes lower flow.

Yes blue corals are kinda rare but thats okay i plan on taking the hobby very slowly so im not in any rush to pack the tank full of blue corals in 6 months. I just want to have a few small frags and watch everything grow and take over the tank to give that wild look.

Thanks for the brain suggestion. I do have it on my list but im worried that if the centerpiece area is on the rocks (it will depend on rock placement) then i would tear the flesh. Brains belong on the sand. But, it is on my list of maybe.
Also on my maybe list are but are only on the list because of colour:
RBTA
pink birds nest
sun coral
group of feather dusters or coco worms or christmas worm
flower tree coral red/orange
Carnation tree coral
Orange tree gorgonian
Yellow tree gorg
red sea fan
red brain
blasto
red macro algae like kelp or red grape
*Again this list is just for the colours not what i intend to keep* The list will be edited down to no heavy feedings, non agressive species and species that do not need calcium comming out the yin yang.

This tank will not have a lot of coral. Just a few species to grow out. I saw some electric blue shrooms as well that i am now dreaming about in there too. :)


You've got some really difficult to keep non-photosynthetic filter feeders (azooxanthellate) on that list. Have you seen this article before? http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2008-02/feature/index.php If those are what you want to get into its worth reading.

While you're starting out and wanting to do a mixed reef I'd cut that list back to RBTA, Birdsnest, Open Brain, Blasto (expensive), feather dusters and macro algae. Sun corals while not necessarily difficult do require almost daily feeding of each individual polyp... its a lot of work and makes going on vacation a pain. If red is your thing you could also add an acan to that list.

http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/hh109/whatcaneyedo/72.jpg

[JDigital]

koralia 3 will be way to much flow in that tank. your going to be running into problems but a nano and a 1 would be great.


I disagree... it will be about 30x turnover, and with it being a 36" tank, mounting the K3 at one end would work well I think. :wink:

[lorenz0]

I disagree... it will be about 30x turnover, and with it being a 36" tank, mounting the K3 at one end would work well I think. :wink:

he is looking at keeping softies so if you put a K3 on one end there will be way to much flow on one end of the tank, actually to mush for what he wants to keep. with a k1 on one end and a nano on the other this should balance it out with enough flow. I reccomended adding the nano since it was longer.

[skabooya]

whatcaneyedo: Yes i know most on my list are not worth keeping in my tank. Esp for a beginner. I just have them on the list for colour so people know approx what i am looking for (colour wise). I have not decided anything yet and it will be quite a while before i decide what i would want to get for my centerpiece. So no rush and yes i am slowly doing research on these items. Most are off the list.
is that your acan? it looks awsome. I notice your in PG. 8 hours away from me. hmmmm lol.
Lorenz0: from everyone that has given me advice and from everything i have read you are the only person that is against the K3 in my tank. Ive seen a 20gal with a k3 in it for softies. My tank is 28gal 36" Long. Ive even been told to go for 2 K3's one at each end or 2 K2's even a K4 and a K1. I chose 1 K3. Lots of flow will help to prevent algae and deterius build up. Yes i will have a lot of flow in one area but ive also seen shrooms growing in areas like that. Cloves which i really want need medium flow to prevent algae from growing in between the polyps.
I dont want LOW flow i want a medium flow. Koralias dont preform top notch for very long. Also whenever getting a filter/power head/etc always get one bigger than what you need because of preformance issues most do not reach their gph and are slightly under that and with time their gph decreases even furthur. About 30x turnover is not bad. Its not sps turnover which is a lot its just under that.
To my understanding with nanos the most important parts of the hobby that you need to get right are good lighting, good water for waterchanges (salinity included), and good water flow.

Oh and PS to everyone im a she not a he LMAO :)

[lorenz0]

I am just talking from experience with nano's

if you want to run a K3 its all up to you. even running a K1 in my nano i found some area's to still have to much flow. If you believe thats the route you want to take its all up to you but imo my mushrooms actually trive more in the less flow area's.

[Carrera75]

Try different things and decide what works for you. I only have 1 Koralia #2 in my 50 gallon reef tank (LPS and Softies) and all my corals are super happy. In fact I had 2 Koralia #3 when I first set up my tank and it was too much flow. Then I went with only 1 Koralia #3 but my corals were still not happy so I switched that for a #2 and everything seems to be doing well.

My tank has been set up like that for almost 2 years now. I am not saying that this is what you should do. All I am saying is that different things work for different people. Experiment a bit and see what works for YOU. In this hobby you are often going to get different opinions from different people. That's why you have to do what work for YOU regardless of what some people say.


Cheers

[REDNECK_REEFER]

Hey, nice to hear of more women getting into the hobby!!. I wouldn't worry too much about the koralia 3 the water that comes out of them is soft feeling not like a maxi jet when it blasts water through a small opening. If you angle your pump either towards the surface or against one of the panes of glass you should be fine.

[JDigital]

I am just talking from experience with nano's

if you want to run a K3 its all up to you. even running a K1 in my nano i found some area's to still have to much flow. If you believe thats the route you want to take its all up to you but imo my mushrooms actually trive more in the less flow area's.

Your tank is 8Gs smaller and 12" shorter... lol.. 36" is along ways for a K3 to push water..

[skabooya]

If i get an HOB fuge then i will only need a K2 right? since the HOB and the skimmer will be creating some flow. Right?

[JDigital]

If i get an HOB fuge then i will only need a K2 right? since the HOB and the skimmer will be creating some flow. Right?

Correct... It will depend on the HOB filter tho, to make up the flow difference between a K2 and K3 (approx. 250gph difference)

[Myka]

My 33g has a K2 and a MJ1200, and I wouldn't want any more flow for LPS.

[fkshiu]

If i get an HOB fuge then i will only need a K2 right? since the HOB and the skimmer will be creating some flow. Right?

Actually, it doesn't exactly work like that IME. The useable flow out of an HOB-anything is next to useless because it is merely dropping straight down into the tank rather than flowing around throughout the tank.

Think of filling your bathtub: at the tap end there's a lot of flow going straight down, but not much of that force is getting to the far end of the tub. Now, take the same flow and point it sideways underwater like a hose and you'll get plenty of flow at the other end.

In any event, fuges require LOW flow to be of any use in any event. The water coming out of it and your HOB skimmer will be rather gentle (certainly nowhere near as much force as an open tap) and won't have much of an effect on anything that isn't directly underneath of it.

I thought the same way with my old 46 bowfront. I added up the flow from all the powerheads and HOB skimmer and refugium. On paper it looked great, but in actual practice there was no where near enough flow and I had to put in bigger powerheads.

[Myka]

Ya, you can't really count anything other than powerheads for your flow unless the tank is like 10g. :)

[skabooya]

So then if i stick with a K3 will that be too much flow for a CPR Aqua fuge to work properly? Or should i go with a K2 for this?
Im looking at the CPR medium 3.6gallons. Is it worth it or should i just nix the idea and continue with simple and just do the K3 with the skimmer like i had planned???

[Myka]

An AquaFuge needs a powerhead to run the water from your tank into the fuge. AquaFuge's run just like an HOB power filter (like say an AquaClear). It uses a pump to pull the water out of the tank, then overflows back into the tank. You can't use a Koralia to run a CPR AquaFuge, it's the wrong design. The AquaFuge's come with their own powerhead to run it, that is small and has slow flow. The amount of flow you have in the tank has nothing to do with the amount of flow you have running through the AquaFuge. You can use the K3, the skimmer, and the AquaFuge all together with no problem, in fact they will compliment eachother quite well. :)

The AquaFuge is SO similar to an AquaClear HOB filter in fact, that you can use an AquaClear as a fuge if you'd like to, for A LOT less money. Lots of people use AquaClear 110's (the biggest ones) for fuges. You can find the modded AC110's in the classifieds every once in awhile. Look up AquaClear mods or try this link: http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=38221

[skabooya]

Oh i know the K3 wont power the fuge i was wondering about it in addition to the HOB. But youve answered my question completely.
Now researching AC110 :) Ive seen it done lots of times my issue with it will be finding a light for it. Other than that its all good now. Thank you :)

[Myka]

A standard incandescent light strip for a 5g tank fits the AC110 perfectly, and it's cheap! Use a Philips Daylight 6500K spiral compact flourescent bulb, and you're set. It even produces a nice color from the bulb, not uber yellow like the Coralife 6500Ks.

[skabooya]

Well i already got the light in a desk lamp im using over my nano fw planted so i could just use that. It is 6500K :)
Now im looking at a K2 on one end of the tank and a K1 on the other because like someone mentioned its a long way for a K3 to push water. I dont want to have a near stagnant area. A K2 and a K1 add up to have almost the same flow as a single K3. It will cost more but im just not sure :(
AND what really sucks is that i have to finish my office build. Im getting sick and tired of waiting for it to get finished by my hubby and his dad. Its been nearly a year! So im gonna take the money saved up and spend it on bookcases. My dad in law was gonna build them which would be cheaper but he wont start them until after hunting season which is in October. I needed my office last year! So i guess this means im gonna have an empty tank until around christmas time :( Im hoping thats not the case but yea im gonna have to start my saving from scratch again.

[Carrera75]

Now researching AC110 :) Ive seen it done lots of times my issue with it will be finding a light for it. Other than that its all good now. Thank you :)

This will work for the AC110
http://www.jlaquatics.com/phpstore/store_pages/details/l-pc.php?product_ID=pc-al0909

[Myka]

Now im looking at a K2 on one end of the tank and a K1 on the other because like someone mentioned its a long way for a K3 to push water.

Be sure that when you have one on one end, and one on the other that they don't face eachother otherwise they knock out half the flow from eachother.

[skabooya]

Sorry I havent been on in a while. I ended up spending my money on bookshelves for my office $1000+ which i really needed. My knees and bum were getting sore from doing paper work on the floor and digging through piles of books and papers stacked up on average 3ft high on the floor.
Anyway I managed to save up enough money to buy some equiptment YAY! and then BOOM the electric bill comes. Did you know that there is a new residential conservation rate? It just started up Oct 1 of this year. Well you can imagine my ****yness when our electric bill went up an extra $100 because of this.
This is an incentive for people to conserve energy and to do this they are going to charge extra for power. So instead of power costing $0.06550 it is now going to cost in total $0.18 on average BUT it will depend. I quote "If you use less than 2260 kWh on a bi-monthly basis you will pay less than under the previous flat rate structure" it goes on to say "The new rate structure provides a price incentive to encourage conservation"
It says on the hydro website if you use more than 1350kWh you will pay 7.21cents/kwh until April 1 2009 at which time this price will go up to 8.21/kwh cents. But if you use less than 1350kWh then you only pay 5.95/kwh cents until April 1, 2009 when the price goes up to 6.35 cents per kwh and this is on top of the rate we are paying now which is a little over 6 cents.
BUT get this there are 2 steps to this Step one charges 0.5980/kwh and step 2 charges 0.07210/kwh so really you are getting charged 3 times. WHY? i have no idea and when i called they couldnt explain it to me either and only told me to wait until they read the meter again in november and re-bill me. I was like WTF?
So in total i am paying 18cents per kWh.
This means the tank I want to set up will now cost PER MONTH:

Heater = 100watts 24/7
Hydor K1 = 3.5watts 24/7
Hydor k2= 4.5watts 24/7
Skimmer = 10watts 24/7
Lights = ~160watts 8hrs

watts/1000 (conversion to kW) then
kW x hours x kWh cost (18 cents in my case) x 31 (days of the month)
Then you get your answer

For me its $127.38/month AND this does not include normal upkeep costs, salt, water, food, etc. This is just for electric.
Before this my 28gal would have cost me about $50/month. I feel sorry for those that have 100+ gal systems WOW!

So now what do i do. Do i still do salt water or do i switch to something else that is cheaper. *sigh* our economy sucks.

[X-Treme]

So in total i am paying 18cents per kWh.
This means the tank I want to set up will now cost PER MONTH:

Heater = 100watts 24/7
Hydor K1 = 3.5watts 24/7
Hydor k2= 4.5watts 24/7
Skimmer = 10watts 24/7
Lights = ~160watts 8hrs

watts/1000 (conversion to kW) then
kW x hours x kWh cost (18 cents in my case) x 31 (days of the month)
Then you get your answer

For me its $127.38/month AND this does not include normal upkeep costs, salt, water, food, etc. This is just for electric.
Before this my 28gal would have cost me about $50/month. I feel sorry for those that have 100+ gal systems WOW!

So now what do i do. Do i still do salt water or do i switch to something else that is cheaper. *sigh* our economy sucks.


Why on EARTH would your heater be running 24/7????

[marie]

... Did you know that there is a new residential conservation rate? It just started up Oct 1 of this year. Well you can imagine my ****yness when our electric bill went up an extra $100 because of this.
This is an incentive for people to conserve energy and to do this they are going to charge extra for power. So instead of power costing $0.06550 it is now going to cost in total $0.18 on average BUT it will depend. I quote "If you use less than 2260 kWh on a bi-monthly basis you will pay less than under the previous flat rate structure" it goes on to say "The new rate structure provides a price incentive to encourage conservation"
It says on the hydro website if you use more than 1350kWh you will pay 7.21cents/kwh until April 1 2009 at which time this price will go up to 8.21/kwh cents. But if you use less than 1350kWh then you only pay 5.95/kwh cents until April 1, 2009 when the price goes up to 6.35 cents per kwh and this is on top of the rate we are paying now which is a little over 6 cents...
.

Maybe I'm reading my bill wrong but I don't think it's "on top of the rate we are paying now which is a little over 6 cents"
My bill has been separated into 2 parts, before oct 1st and after oct 1 and nowhere after oct 1 is there an extra 6 cent charge just the $.059 and the $.072

Oh yea and I'm paying about $120 a month and I have 4 tanks running, 1 of them is my 175g

[skabooya]

Marie: That is why I called them yesterday to figure this out. It didnt make any sence to me. My bill says that under the normal rate of 0.06550/kWh i would have spent 76.05 last month. Which is what i would have had to pay before.

Under that it says Usage Charge step 1 and step 2 "Oct 01 to Oct 16 (residential conservation rate 1101) Basic charge: 16 days @ $ 0.12380/day"
Step 1 then goes on to charge me $21.23 and step 2 charges me 63.81 and then gst 8.29

Now the charge of my 75.05 for the normal usage plus step 1 and 2 and gst and the rider rate and the clean energy fund levy My total comes out to $174.79 for everything in my house.

So they basically charged me 3 times. Now, what i was told on the phone by these people was to wait until the november reading for a re-billing. She said that it would make more sense next month but If im paying a total of 18cents / kWh staying under the 1350 kWh line then i will be paying about 2Cents extra /kWh (20 cents total) if i go over that AND it will all change April 1 when the rates go up. SO then the norm would be 19 cents normally if i stay under the 1350 line and 21 cents if i go over.

And marie whats your secret to only paying that much for your tanks??
I currently have only one tank running (i tore down the other two) and its FW. I got rid of my hot tub, switched to cold water, changed all the bulbs in my house, etc etc etc and Im paying more now than what i did last year. WTF??? makes no sense to me. Please Please tell me your secret.

X-Treme
Is it wrong to have a heater running 24/7 ?? I thought that the temp would be regulated that way. Thats the way ive been doing it for years and my temps stay constant. When the temp goes over what i set it too on the heater then the heater shuts off until the temp falls below what i set it too and then it comes back on.
Please explain why its not a smart thing to do to run a heater on 24/7 im confused with this.

[X-Treme]

Well in your billing summary you are figuring out power usage for your heater RUNNING 24/7. Just because it is plugged in 24/7 doesn't mean it RUNS 24/7. Due to lighting and ambient temps, I would say that your heater actually RUNS (is turned on) 6 hours per day at the ABSOLUTE MAX. Therefore it only draws power for that amount of time. So you would use 600 watts per day rather than your calculated 2400watts.

[skabooya]

very true X-treme but even with those calculations i would only be saving a couple of bucks so i would still be paying over $100 a month for a 28gal tank which is outrageous to me. And you also need to remember that a heater isint completely turned off if it is still plugged in think of it as on standby. There is still some energy being used so that it can detect when it needs to be turned on or off. Its the same as a computer in standby or sleep mode. Technically its still on and using power but not as much.

[fkshiu]

Is it wrong to have a heater running 24/7 ?? I thought that the temp would be regulated that way. Thats the way ive been doing it for years and my temps stay constant. When the temp goes over what i set it too on the heater then the heater shuts off until the temp falls below what i set it too and then it comes back on.
Please explain why its not a smart thing to do to run a heater on 24/7 im confused with this.

What he means is that your heater is only drawing electricity (i.e. "ON") when the little red light is on. You may have it plugged in, but it's not drawing electricity 24/7. Therefore, you cannot say that your 50W heater is using 50W all day long as say your return pump would be.

[skabooya]

Ok i dont know what i was doing yesterday but i think i was typing in 18 instead of .18 or something.
So let me do these calculations online so you guys can make sure im doing it right. Math is not my best subject

Heater 100w
hk1 3.5w
hk2 4.5w
skimmer 10w
lights 160w

the first 4 are 24/7 so i will do them together. they come out to 118watts total divided by 1000 = 0.118kW

then I go 0.118 x 24hours x 0.18 cents x 31 days = $15.80

next: 160/1000 = 0.16kW 0.16kW x 8 x 0.18 x 31 = $7.14

15.80 + 7.14 = $22.94 a month.


That is much better than the $100+ i did yesterday. What the heck was i thinking for those equations? Wow.

[X-Treme]

You are still wrong with calculating that your heater will draw 100w 24/7. If you want a 24/7 figure I would go with 25w. (ie. drawing 100W 1/4 of the day)

[skabooya]

ok so im overestimating slightly. The point is that im not paying $100+ a month anymore. And if the heater isint on all that time then the price will be under $20 a month YAY!!!!

[skabooya]

Update: ... not really much to update other than to let people know im still here. Ive saved up about $525 now.. shesh this is gonna take me forever. The majority of the cash is going into our Newfoundland trip for this summer (family reunion on my hubbys side). My budget is $1200. I went to check out the prices today to see if prices changed... YUP! Everything went up by a lot. My tank costs just for setups are now and extra $200 total. WTF!!! And that doesnt include corals or fish. You have no idea how much it upsets me.
But anyway i managed to shave off $100 for a total of $1018.88 approximately which leaves me about $150 for coral and fish. Yikes.
Heres my new list of what to buy (but im not happy about the price increases for any of them)
Test Kit
20lbs Fiji pink substrate
HK1
HK2
50lbs Instant Ocean Salt (From the original 160gal mix)
100w Ebo Jagger heater
12inch proscraper (from original 24inch)
Tunze Protein Skimmer
Refractometer
Ocean Nutrition small pellets (from other more expensive brand)
Nova Extreme T5 HO 4x39 (price went up on this by a lot)
22lbs dead Rock from bulk reef supply

Corals I really want are:
Ice blue cloves, blue zoas or zoas with blue in them (maily light blue so they are easier to see), some pink zoas for contrast, Gemini Palys (because im a gemini ), Blue shrooms, Blue rics and rics with blue in them, pulsing xenia (the one that looks like it has a blue stripe going through its main stalks and fingers), Something that will move in the current like a hammer or elegance coral <puurrrddyy, and something that is freaky coloured like WOW possible acan or blasto.

Livestock:
2 true percs and possibly a coral beauty (my fav fish)
CUC snails and hermies and cleaner shrimp maybe.



A $200 increase in store prices made a lot of what I want unreachable, stupid economy or canadian/US doller thingie, whatever is ruining my plans BOOOO!!!

[Snaz]

Since you probably won't adding the LPS until at least 6 weeks after the tank is under way you have some more time to save.

I'm sure you know but I thought I'd chime in "just in case" not to add all of your livestock at once. :biggrin:

[Boomboy]

i really like the dimensions of that tank, any new pictures yet??

[skabooya]

No, Its not even set up yet. It still sitting empty because ive been trying to save up money again for it. I had $1000 but i spent it on bookshelves for my office (i needed them).
Because of the price increases i am really re-thinking saltwater :( I would still love to have one but the cost is just rediculious now.

Ive been resarching so i could do something that is budget wise and 'low tech'

Im trying to see how low i can go for lighting and still keep nicely coloured softies and no lps.
Im more interested in zoas, rics, shrooms, cloves, and xenia anyways
Because these corals like a 'dirty' tank Im wondering if i should just not get the skimmer at all. However I wont be able to do weekly WC. Perhaps every other week or so... But ive read of many people going weeks without a WC and doing only topoffs. Ive even read somewhere of someone not doing a WC for a year!!! Still its not ideal and i dont want the life in my tank to suffer.

I dont know how to edit my list down other than to downgrade the tank but i already have the tank.
So now im wondering if i could go with lower lighting and if so how low and where to buy it. I dont want to spend more than $300 but that doesnt mean i want a $300 fixture. and this includes bulbs.
Im wondering about not getting a refractometer and just going for a hydrometer again
Instead of LR i would be doing dead rock and then seeding it so i can save some cash there
Any other ideas to how i can save more money?


Snaz: yes i already know about not adding all livestock all at once. Im willing to be very patient as you can probably tell by me not having the tank set up yet. The price i quoted previously was just for setup, it doesnt include any livestock.
Boomboy: yea thats why i wanted this size tank because the size is just awsome.

[skabooya]

I did some number crunching and reduced my list and got lower quality stuff but still not horrible. Heres the new list. Tell me what you think.
Ocean Masters Test Kit 54.98
20lbs Fiji Pink substrate 32.65
Coralife 2x96 PC Light strip 269.95 (there is a 1x96PC that im looking at too)
Mounting legs 8.45
HK1 33.95
HK2 42.95
IO Hydrometer 12.35
50lbs IO salt 16.44
100watt Ebo Jagger heater 27.95
Total with taxes $596.93 (This is a lot less than the cost with everything i wanted before but i wouldnt mind reducing it some more)

22lbs Dead rock with shipping and taxes approx 103.89

The entire setup being approx $700.89

The changes i made are:
No skimmer
Refractometer changed to an Instant Ocean Hydrometer
Lights downgraded from 4x39T5 to 2x96PC
No algae scraper (I will just need to use a credit card or something)
No foods added (Wont have any livestock in the tank for quite some time and even so it would probably be corals first so i would just buy food when i get them anyway)
Salt went from 160gal mix to 50gal

By doing all that my costs went down about $400 which is a HUGE difference to me and is much more acceptable than $1000+ when i have so many other renos to do around the house.

[skabooya]

WOOO an advancement!!! I bought my lightfixture. I had to get something cheap but good. I could no longer go with the nova extreme I originally wanted because of cost and the lesser nova extreme 2x39 was not HO and after reading many reviews, very cheaply made (broken bulbs, etc) AND when compared to the hagen glo was basically crapola.

So, I purchased the Hagen Glo 2x39 HO T5 36" model.
I would like to get geismann bulbs to put into it but what combo would be best for my future corals. I want their colours to really shine and i want them to be super healthy too.

I know under 2x39 T5 HO i can keep softies
My list includes: rics, zoas, cloves, shrooms, xenia, and possibly devils hand leather with green polyps.

I know i can keep some lps
My list includes:
hammer, frogspawn.


My second question (1st was about bulb combo) is what other Lps can I keep should I want any? Some people say brain, plate coral, acan, and blasto. Some also say you can keep sps under those lights (I dont think so) but suggestions were pink birdsnest, and monti.
I would like to get the list straightened out so I know what my limits are.
Thanks in advance.:)

[skabooya]

I read a few threads about bulb combos but with a 2 bulb fixture its difficult because all the combos were for 4+ bulb fixtures.

Here are my bulb options
Im looking at the Giesmann bulbs and my choices from JLAquatics.com are:
Powerchrome - Midday (6000K)
" - Aquablue+ (15000K)
" - Actinic+ (2200K)
" - Pure Actinic (421nm)

I want a blue look where the corals really pop. But I want them to grow. I dont really like the pinky look.

HELP!!!!

[skabooya]

So I ended up finding where to get ATI bulbs *THANK YOU PROGRESSIVE REEF*
Im going to get the Blue+ and the Aquablue special. But holy poop the shipping cost is killing me. The total cost for the 2 bulbs will be $103 From the store to my house. WOW almost as much as my fixture lol

[skabooya]

Bought the bulbs. check totals on first post. :)

[skabooya]

Hi all,
I know this project is going very slowly. I was waiting until I got back from Newfoundland to get started. Well I had to come back early for a family emergency. My dad was very sick in the hospital with Lung cancer. It was a surprise to us all. I spend 25 hours with him before he passed away. Im still not over it as it just happened July 6. But I realize more than ever that life is short and you never know when you will go so I just spent the money and bought everything I need for my salty tank today. The stand still needs to be built and who knows when that will be done now. My grandfather has now also become very ill so who knows. Its been an awful month and I need a little happiness in my life about now. Im hoping the start of this tank will help.

[skabooya]

Orders from JLA came in today. Waiting on bulk reef supply (prob next week) and I still have to build the stand then the magic will happen.

[Snaz]

Sorry for your loss.

What arrived from J&L?

[lastlight]

Sorry to hear of your father's passing. I used to spend hours every night with my face pressed into my glass it's a great time and it will surely bring a smile to your face (and a suntan).

[skabooya]

Thanks snaz and lastlight. Its still pretty hard and Im having a pretty rough time getting over it. I try to hide it from my family and be strong for them but when i get home and im on my own i just break down.
The tank is already bringing me happiness. Just getting my stuff from JLA made me so happy. It felt like christmas opening up those two packages.
I recieved:
Caribsea Fiji Pink Substrate
Instant Ocean salt mix
Ebo Jagger heater
HK1 and HK2
Kent Proscraper
Coral Frenzy food
New Life Spectrum Food
Reef Plus and Reef Trace additives
Refractometer
Tunze 9002 Protein Skimmer
Coral Master Test Kits

And then Hopefully next week My rock will be comming in.

[BlueAbyss]

Sorry to hear of your loss... you're stronger than I am :wink:

And you're very much on your way with all that nice equipment :lol: Can't wait to see how things turn out... where are you getting your rock from? J&L? And what kind of rock?

I've been wanting to see some real world pics of the Irian Jaya rock that they have on their website.

[whatcaneyedo]

Happy anniversary! It says the first post in this thread was July 23, 2008!

[skabooya]

Blue Abyss: thats what everyone is saying about me. That im so strong. It doesnt feel like it. I loose it when im at my own place. But life must go on, as hard as it is.
And yes, some not so bad stuff i recieved. Im hoping my tank turns out to look almost as good as many others on this forum.

whatcaneyedo: YAY 1 year... although it feels longer than that lol.

[skabooya]

Hey all. Well the rollercoaster of emotions has not stopped yet. As you know my dad recently passed and I just found out that I was pregnant last month. I am now 9 weeks and 6 days. It will be our first child and the first baby in the whole family (grandchild, neice/nephew, cousin, etc) It is also my first time being pregnant. Its a bitter sweet pregnancy. We are excited about it but I just wish my Dad was here to play with his grandchild like he wanted.

Anyways, I recieved all my shipments for the salty tank and have been looking for a stand. Aparently they dont make stands for that size tank anymore. Im getting one made but my father in law says he wont start that for a while. Its been MONTHS! and he still doesnt want to start it. I wish my hubby would but hes not exactly motivated to do anything at any time. This is really getting frustrating but I will post pics of what i have so far in just a few minutes :)

[skabooya]

Here they are. There will be more rock added as LR in order to seed the tank. Im trying to decide where to place corals so they can be seen at their best. i want just a few corals and I want to let them grow out so the tank looks full and very established. As for fish I keep tossing the idea around of what I want so it will be quite some time after coral before I get any fish I think.
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/skabooya/Stuff040.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/skabooya/Stuff043.jpg

Coral Thoughts:
mushrooms (blue, blue with spots, green with stripes)
zoas (blues, pinks, anything funky in the blue/pink range)
neon candy cane
kandy kane acan
green with pink/purple tip frogspawn
neon green hammer
ice blue cloves and other cloves
blue pulsing xenia
blue rics and rics with blue in them


Fish thoughts (only one of the selections below):
2 true percs
1 coral beauty
pistol yasha goby combo
blue damsels
6 line wrasse
???

[Skimmerking]

my system costs around 30 bucks a month for my full blown SPS with 3 250's i have a 150 gal too i guess it pays to live in manitoba .568 cent a kilo watt:lol:

Sorry I havent been on in a while. I ended up spending my money on bookshelves for my office $1000+ which i really needed. My knees and bum were getting sore from doing paper work on the floor and digging through piles of books and papers stacked up on average 3ft high on the floor.
Anyway I managed to save up enough money to buy some equiptment YAY! and then BOOM the electric bill comes. Did you know that there is a new residential conservation rate? It just started up Oct 1 of this year. Well you can imagine my ****yness when our electric bill went up an extra $100 because of this.
This is an incentive for people to conserve energy and to do this they are going to charge extra for power. So instead of power costing $0.06550 it is now going to cost in total $0.18 on average BUT it will depend. I quote "If you use less than 2260 kWh on a bi-monthly basis you will pay less than under the previous flat rate structure" it goes on to say "The new rate structure provides a price incentive to encourage conservation"
It says on the hydro website if you use more than 1350kWh you will pay 7.21cents/kwh until April 1 2009 at which time this price will go up to 8.21/kwh cents. But if you use less than 1350kWh then you only pay 5.95/kwh cents until April 1, 2009 when the price goes up to 6.35 cents per kwh and this is on top of the rate we are paying now which is a little over 6 cents.
BUT get this there are 2 steps to this Step one charges 0.5980/kwh and step 2 charges 0.07210/kwh so really you are getting charged 3 times. WHY? i have no idea and when i called they couldnt explain it to me either and only told me to wait until they read the meter again in november and re-bill me. I was like WTF?
So in total i am paying 18cents per kWh.
This means the tank I want to set up will now cost PER MONTH:

Heater = 100watts 24/7
Hydor K1 = 3.5watts 24/7
Hydor k2= 4.5watts 24/7
Skimmer = 10watts 24/7
Lights = ~160watts 8hrs

watts/1000 (conversion to kW) then
kW x hours x kWh cost (18 cents in my case) x 31 (days of the month)
Then you get your answer

For me its $127.38/month AND this does not include normal upkeep costs, salt, water, food, etc. This is just for electric.
Before this my 28gal would have cost me about $50/month. I feel sorry for those that have 100+ gal systems WOW!

So now what do i do. Do i still do salt water or do i switch to something else that is cheaper. *sigh* our economy sucks.

[karazy]

looking good.

for corals i would say maybe add a finger leather to your list. they always look awesome once they grow out and will make your tank look nice and mature. plus they grow quickly too.

[skabooya]

yes if i got a leather I would want a green polyp devils hand.
Things have started to get back to normal, somewhat.
My father in law finally got around to building my stand but he wont give it to me until christmas so i guess I wont set the tank up until then. I hope Im not too big by then :)
On a brighter note I am now an auntie for the first time. My sister in law gave birth to my little neice Teanna on November 6th. YAY shes so beautiful. A few more months and it will be me Yikes. Pretty scarry.

[BlueAbyss]

I like the way your rockwork looks already :lol: Congrats on being an auntie!

[skabooya]

Well my father in law built and painted a stand for me YAY!!! but i dont get it until christmas lol. So I guess/hope that it will be started for the new year.
I am now 19 weeks 5 days pregnant and baby is kicking up a storm :)

Once the tank is cycled my first purchase will more than likely be shrooms... after the CUC

[skabooya]

FINALLY FINALLY FINALLY!!! Tank and stand are in place. Geez this reef stuff takes forever lol.
Im in the process of marking final exams for my classes but I want to get all things organized under my stand today.
I also need to find a small container so i can make distilled water and store it there so i can calibrate my refractometer.

Now i want to get it right. Im so excited im forgetting where to start.
Step 1: fill tank with water and mix salt in it until desired salinity All powerheads turned on
Step 2: put rocks and sand in tank
Step 3: Buy LR to seed the tank
Step 4: Wait patiently for cycle to be over
Step 5: buy CUC
Step 6: Buy more CUC if previous CUC has croaked or is not doing its job well enough
Step 7: Buy inverts
Step 8: Buy some corals added at 2 week intervals so as not to overwhelm the system
Step 9: Buy 2 true percs
Step 10: Turn on skimmer


Am I missing anything? Should i change the steps? Add steps? Let me know PLEASE.
I dont want to forget anything and with times being as stressful and busy as they are (only going to get worse with baby comming in 3 months) I need step by step

[Chase31]

i would turn the skimmer on right after you put water in, i have my tank with just sand in it and the skimmers going, it will take a fair amount of the live rock

[Foxface]

i would turn the skimmer on right after you put water in, i have my tank with just sand in it and the skimmers going, it will take a fair amount of the live rock

my system costs around 30 bucks a month for my full blown SPS with 3 250's i have a 150 gal too i guess it pays to live in manitoba .568 cent a kilo watt:lol:

Here is a web site to a calculator that will help you figure out your monthly electric bill. www.citytrf.net/costs_calculator.htm Hope this helps.

[skabooya]

added water and salt. Will wait until tomorrow to test the salinity at which time I will either add rocks and sand or adjust the salinity some more.

[Chase31]

what kind of water are you using just tap? or RO, also what type of salt (all for interests sake :p)

[skabooya]

Im using tap water. The quality in our town is very very good. I am also using Instant Ocean salt because that is all that is readily available here.

[skabooya]

Tested SG today and it was 1.026. I know its in range but its up there. I would like it at 1.024-25. But instead of adjusting it now i added sand and some dead LR. Cant see a thing in there. I will test again after the storm settles and all the rocks are added so I can adjust water then. Just in case Argag alive changes SG at all. The bag of sand came with a water clarifier thingie in a bag. I didnt bother adding it.

Next step either turning on Skimmer or waiting to go to LFS to buy LR for seeding :)

Hoping to get pics up later today.

[skabooya]

My makeshift water distiller to calibrate the refractometer.

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/skabooya/Distillingwater.jpg


Sandstorm
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/skabooya/Sandstorm.jpg

[whatcaneyedo]

I'm a bit surprised that there is a LFS in Kitimat that sells saltwater. Do they carry a decent selection (fish, coral, equipment etc)?

Its suppose to be better to calibrate a refractometer with a solution of known salinity rather than distilled water. However I've done both at the same time and the difference was only .001 so its probably not a big deal.

BTW why did you buy 'live sand'?

This is how I would perform the steps.
Step 1: fill tank with water and mix salt in it until desired salinity All powerheads turned on
Step 2: put rocks and sand in tank
Step 10: Turn on skimmer
Step 3: Buy LR to seed the tank
Step 4: Wait patiently for cycle to be over
Step 5: buy CUC

(Dont over do it, I've often watched people add too many snails, crabs etc only to watch everything starve to death or kill each other. 1 CUC member per 5-10gal is more appropriate in my opinion.)

Step 6: Buy more CUC if previous CUC has croaked or is not doing its job well enough
Step 9: Buy 2 true percs
Step 7: Buy inverts (what kind of inverts are you referring to?)
Step 8: Buy some corals added at 2 week intervals so as not to overwhelm the system (Fish impact the bioload of a tank much more than coral do. Coral simply need a mature tank to survive and thrive.)

[skabooya]

whatcanyedo: Nope, no lfs here in Kitimat. The town over has one though (Terrace). Its 45min drive away. They dont have a decent selection of salty stuff because there isint a high demand for it but they have 3 tanks. 1 for LR, 1 for fish and 1 for coral and fish and inverts.

The directions on the refractometer said to calibrate with distilled water. The distilled water should read 0 on the refractometer if not then it needs to be calibrated until it reads 0. Mine read perfect. Didnt need to touch a thing.

As for buying live sand, I just wanted Fiji Pink and that was what was available. I doubt its really 'live' though considering how long it may have sat on the shelves at the store and then through shipping conditions and then waiting in the bag for me to dump into the tank.

Rocks and sand in tank now, pumps working and skimmer on.
Skimmate is only going up halfway the tube and is white. Nothing being collected. I played with the skimmer to see if i can get the skimmate higher up the tube but to no avail. Im assuming it needs a short break in period?
Its a tunze 9002, very quiet im impressed.

Ok so CUC, fish and then Coral got it. :) and yes i plan to take it very very slow. Wont be gong to the lfs for at least a week and a half maybe 2 weeks to pick up some LR to seed the tank. Then i want to leave it for at least a month or 2 for the cycle (I have testing equiptment so no worries :) ) THEN I will buy CUC at which time I will prob be ready to give birth at any time so no other additions for quite some time. lol

[Chase31]

the skimate shouldnt have to be high up in the cup, as the yuck rises to the top the bubles wont pop and should be pushed to the top of the cup :), and if its brand new it will need to break in

[skabooya]

Alright, so i left the skimmer as it was and a few hours later I went to admire the tank. Well some skimmate 'yuck' had collected in the bottom of the cup.
It was all the fine dust floating around the tank. Made the room smell like a rock quary. I fed the spoils to the porcelin god.

This morning the tank is sooooo clear. I cant wait to go to the lfs to pick up my LR to watch the life spread.

Currently my skimmer is set on a timer with the lights. Its on when the lights are on and off when the lights are off BUT I dont have the lights plugged in yet. I figure its a waste of good bulbs when there is nothing alive in the tank until I get some rock.


Im researching a CUC for the tank.
I love love love hermits but they are mean. They kill the snails for shells. I would like to get at least one hermie though.

So, 1 Blue legged hermit crab
? Certh snails
? Astrea snails
? Nassarius snails
? Margarita snails

[Chase31]

well right now as the tank has nothing in it i would say thats okay, but once the rock is in i would run the skimmer 24/7, also with the lights im doing the same thing :p

[whatcaneyedo]

Margarita snails are said to be sub-tropical and eventually cook in normal reef tank temperatures so I would skip those. My personal favorites are mini brittle stars, Abalone, Turbo snails and Stomatella snails. LFS wont sell mini brittle stars or Stomatella but if you're lucky you will get them on your liverock.

I'd run the skimmer constantly as well. Its actually more important for it to run at night than during the day (if you had to pick one). Algae stops performing photosynthesis in the dark which causes your pH to drop because CO2 builds up. A skimmer helps keep the water well oxygenated and buffers this effect.

[skabooya]

What if i want to grow algae (macro algae)?

[Chase31]

id do it in the sump

[whatcaneyedo]

Gracillaria is pretty non invasive and is a great source of red color. Thats the only one I would dare put into a display tank. Halimedia, chaeto, caulerpa, etc all have a way of taking over and are better suited in a refugium section of a sump.

[skabooya]

I really dont mind the "take over". I would love to do a macro tank with some corals which is what i was planning for the last couple of months. I entertained the idea a few years ago and I am again. I love planted reef tanks.
The corals will be softies, shrooms, zoas, cloves, xenia and some lps like frogspawn or a torch and maybe an acan and candy cane
I am aiming for a mature look tank where there are a few corals and they just spread everywhere

[skabooya]

So far for a CUC Im looking at
1 hermit crab
2 certh
2 nassarius
and whatever comes on my LR if im a lucky one


Anything else??

Remember I want to grow macro algae but not micro algae.

Then after a bit I want to get 1 or 2 skunk cleaner hermits, fan worms.
And for fish; 2 true percs.

I may have to add something else to get the bioload up at a later date to increase trates in the water for the macroalgae. Its hard to choose. The only other fish I really want is a coral beauty (my fav) but it will just eat all the macro :(
Gotta look into that bit a lot more.

[skabooya]

Right so ive been doing a lot of reading and talking to people who have macro tanks and seahorse/pipefish tanks. This is what im doing.
SG at 1.025
Temp at 76-77F at the warmest
Overfeed tank inhabitants and feed daily sometimes twice a day
No dosing except for maybe trace elements and only every few months if that
Variety of macroalgaes and they must be trimmed often so they dont choke eachother out.
I will not be using green grape capulara or hamladea (sp?) or chaeto
Dwarf angelfish do not eat macroalgae but they do eat microalgae.
Skimmer (have many different results from people using macroalgae tanks) 24/7, not at all or 1/2 time. Aparently they all work depending on your setup.
WC are done minimally. Once or twice a year. Some however do it more often about once a month (10%) to replenish the trace elements.

Livestock will be 2 true percs and a coral beauty (YAY). 1 skunk cleaner shrimp and a few snails and a hermit crab. OH and some feather dusters.
Corals will be, Zoas (super bright ones like devils armor), lots of mushrooms (electric blue and shrooms with stripes and spots), pulsing xenia, cloves (esp blue), rics (maybe), Either a green with pink/purple tip frogspawn or a pink tipped torch, acan lord, duncan (maybe), dendro (maybe), gorgonian (maybe)
Of course lots and lots of macroalgae.

[Chase31]

i see problems with that, the once a year water changes? your levels will get very high and you'll lose allot of fish, i would recommend like once every two weeks
76-77 is a little cold i would have it 78-80
skimmer i would leave 24/7
why are you overfeeding?
salt gravity is good i think recomened for corals is 1.025-1.026

all of this is IMO :)

[skabooya]

From what ive been told and what i understand overfeeding increases trates which plants need and use to grow. Levels yes will get high unless there are enough macroalgaes to balance the system. You cant just overfeed right off the bat. There needs to be enough plant life to uptake the extra nutrients. Instead of overfeeding people also dose KNO3, among other things to get the levels high enough but overfeeding does the same thing. Same thing for freshwater planted tanks which i run now.

I agree once a year doesnt seem like enough and I plan on doing more. The people that dont do WC often have very mature and stable tanks that take care of themselves. Ive even read about some reef tanks (10gal) that havent done WC in 2 years and their tanks are beautiful but they only have softies and a few fish as well as a skimmer. The tank I speak of now also did not use a sump. I as well as many others were very surprised.
The general concensus is that planted marine tanks are very different than reef tanks.

If the skimmer is on 24/7 it removes too many organics which the plants use, thus starving the plants. I think a skimmer is a good thing but not in a planted tank. I plan on running it for 12 hours at a time. If i see the plants showing signs of starving then I will shut off the skimmer and only run once a week or so.

the cooler temps come from people who keep macroalgae tanks with softies and seahorses or pipefish which need the cooler temps. All of them say these tanks need high nutrient levels and so they overfeed to achieve an environment healthy enough to maintain their horses and pipes as well as have a thriving macroalgae garden.

Everyone keeping these type of tanks agrees that there must be high nutrient levels or the tank will not be successful.
Macroalgae sucks up the nutrients and ends up balancing the system. Many of these people i spoke too also have reef tanks (no macroalgae) and they all agree a macro tank is much easier to care for and their water quality is much better because of the macro.

Even years ago when I started looking into macro tanks overfeeding or overstocking (which im not a fan of) to increase nutrient levels was a given. If you didnt do that then you needed to do some serious dosing.

Either way I want a macro algae tank and Im taking advise from people who have kept these tanks successfully for years (3+) not a couple of months or just over a year.
I am also reading up on tom barr's studies for saltwater planted tanks. He is very well respected for freshwater planted tanks. So far his studies are very similar between the two environments.

[skabooya]

double post

[banditpowdercoat]

I wish you luck, thats all I can say

[Skimmerking]

i see problems with that, the once a year water changes? your levels will get very high and you'll lose allot of fish, i would recommend like once every two weeks
76-77 is a little cold i would have it 78-80
skimmer i would leave 24/7
why are you overfeeding?
salt gravity is good i think recomened for corals is 1.025-1.026

all of this is IMO :)

I have been running my tank in the 77-76 range for about 3 years with no negitive effects

[Chase31]

well i dont know alot about the aquarium business yet, just general guidelines

[skabooya]

Here are some of the threads on macroalgae tanks.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1508826

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=277863&highlight=macroalgae+tank

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1684744&highlight=macroalgae+display

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1367107&highlight=macroalgae+display

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=778087&perpage=25&pagenumber=1

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=175929

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=99552

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/lofiversion/index.php/t177752.html

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1785144

http://forum.seahorse.org/index.php?showtopic=38609

http://www.wetwebmedia.com/greenalg.htm


And as for the WC because im assuming thats what the major issue is about; i said "WC are done minimally" That doesnt mean Im gonna follow some of the advise of doing it once or twice a year. Im gonna do it more than that but im not doing weekly WC. I cant with a new baby. Its just me taking care of all my tanks and im not a stay at home mom either. Every other week or monthly will be more for me. But Im going to do what the plants, coral, and fish tell me to do. If they look like they need more than that then I will do more than that.

High nutrient levels in a macroalgae tank doesnt mean holy poop high. Its higher than would be allowed in a reef tank. Nitrates need to be above 0 in order for the plants to recieve nutrients. Nitrite and ammonia need to be at 0. It doesnt take a lot to increase nutrients to the levels they need to be at. I mean geez people keep softy reef tanks at 20ppm of nitrates. Im not agreeing with it and i believe it should be lower for saltwater tanks. Macro tanks are not that high because the plants suck up all the trates. They typically end up at 0 anyway which is where they need to be. No overfeeding or dosing is needed unless the trates start to bottom out.

Because i am going slowly WC will happen often because I will bairly have any macro and the tank will be "new". Dosing/overfeeding wont really happen at the beginning because there wont be much for nutrient uptake. Adding fish with regular feeding at first will be all that is needed. Once the tank is full and bioload cant keep up with the macroalgae THEN you need to either start overfeeding or dosing or both depending on how much the plants suck up. Before then everything is almost the same as a regular reef tank.


Please tell me what are these successful tanks are doing wrong?? I would like to know. The more research I do now the better before I add anything to the tank.

[banditpowdercoat]

If you don;t mind the algaes taking over your display tank, then its all good. I procrasonate on water changes myself. Med stocked 150g, 15g/monthly WC. I have been battling GHA and am FED UP More water changed and lower nutrients are in store for my tank.

[skabooya]

No i dont mind the macroalgaes taking over the display tank. Thats what I want is a lush full mature display tank with macroalgae and some coral. I think they are beautiful. They dont look like candyshelved corals in a box of water.
Some coral only tanks are lovely because the hobbiest lets the corals grow to their potential and allows the whole tank to mature. Those are lovely.

[don.ald]

i like your plan. hope you have a good camera:mrgreen:
you do know you owe us pics now!

[skabooya]

Oh yea I will be posting pics.
As soon as I can get some LR from the lfs I will count the cycle as started and start testing. I will be taking pics then. right now its a box of water, sand and dead rock. Nothing interesting to look at yet.
The LR at the lfs comes from Hati and you know the issues they are having there. So they are trying to get some in from Jakarta but the dealer is not responding to them. I may have to buy some online from JLA. Ive not had issues with them except for the last shipment. Someone stole my Credit card ID via their secure website and tried to use it at Amazon.ca.
Amazon called and asked if I made a purchase which was a few hundred dollers. Umm no. Ive never been to amazon.ca. So they cancelled the order I cancelled my card and waited a month for my new one.
So now im wondering if i should wait for however long it takes for my LFS to get something in or do the JLA thing again.

As for the tank today: I was lowering the salinity very slowly. I took out about 2gals of saltwater and put in freshwater. Its still slightly above where I want it but Im gonna let it mix some more and then test. If its still the same Im going to remove another 2gals of water and add fresh water. Hopefully that will decrease the salinity enough to get to 1.025.

I cant wait to start getting some macro in the tank. Aparently with macro algae you dont need to wait for the cycle to be over. It wants to feed on nitrates. However no CUC until there is a complete cycle.
Still trying to figure out how much of what to put in there for a CUC.

[Chase31]

the ammonia might not do great on your plants, as for slowly lowering the salinity i wouldn't worry about that as theres nothing in the tank.
Try to find some live rock someone has to much of, or that someone is shutting there tank down, im getting some tonight for $5 a lbs

[skabooya]

Well, once again much time has passed with no updates. Still waiting to get some LR to seed the system. I will not considered the cycle started until I get LR. Looking at JLA LR. Im hoping they have some because the lfs from here to PG dont have any. They aparently get their supplies from Haiti and we all know what happened there.

Currently I am topping off every 3 days (1gal). The salinity changes from .025 to .029 or .030 within that time. Is that too much of a swing for livestock every 3 days??

I did however neglect the tank for a whole week (no topoffs) because my grandfather had passed away due to kidney failure from diabetes. Its been tough but Im sure my mom is having it harder. Her husband and her dad both gone within just under 7 months and now I have an uncle who is really sick and is being tested for pancreatic cancer. My husbands grandpa is also sick. Hes been in the hospital since christmas and has had 4 surgeries thus far. Hes got colon cancer and they found lumps in his lungs. The docs keep going back and forth whether it is cancer or not. Its like they dont know what they are doing in that hospital. (different from ours).

I am also now 32 weeks pregnant (about 8 weeks left to go) and Im scared as hell of "THE DAY". My hips are killing me, cant sleep, BH contractions, nausea, hot flashes, etc etc etc. Its not fun. But feeling my little man move is amazing and I wouldnt change that for the world.

I want to get the cycle started and a few macros in the tank before the birth so I dont have my hands in that tank much if at all.

[skabooya]

Got in contact with a few suppliers of LR and they said they dont supply rock with macroaglae or their supply lately has had none, etc. Contacted my lfs and they are expecting LR from Indonesia in the next month but need to wait for the cites paperwork to go through. So i guess im waiting a while longer.

[skabooya]

just want people to know im still here and still waiting for LR. I told my hubby that it will probably come in while im in the hospital giving birth lol.
Just so people know, Im expecting any day now

[skabooya]

Update: I had my beautiful baby boy on May 5 at 7:09pm after 8 hours of Labour and delivery. So as you can imagine ive been pretty busy :)

The day before yesterday we went on our first family trip to the town over to pick up a few things and to check out the lfs. They did have LR but only a bit left. I picked up the nicest piece they had. The LR is covered in green and red coraline, sponges, some red fuzzy fat tree looking thing (looks pretty cool), covered in pods and shrimp and I counted 3 worms. It does have some nuisance algae but it has started to go away in the short time its been in my tank. All other life is doing very well and hopping around on their rock and surrounding sand.
I also recieved some dragons tongue macro algae for free from the manager of the lfs. It was pale pink and it is now colouring up nicely. The edges are getting orangie dots that fluoress (sp?) under my lighting. Tried taking a pic but my camera doesnt get it.

I am now looking for more macro algaes so, keep an eye out for my begging in the classifides section :)

[muck]

Hey Congrats on your son!!

We need a name and pitchurs of course!! :mrgreen:

[skabooya]

PICTURES!!!

My Son Logan
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/skabooya/DSC_2291.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/skabooya/DSC_2482.jpg


and my tank
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/skabooya/June102010.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/skabooya/DSC_2598.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/skabooya/DSC_2595.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/skabooya/June11whatisthis.jpg

what the heck is that in the last pic? apaistia??

[skabooya]

looks like i didnt post my cycling results with the piece of LR. Here we go :)

June 10 at 12:30
PH 7.8
ammonia 0.0
nitrite 0.0
nitrate 0.0
Alk 2.65

June 11 at 6:15
everything is the same but PH is 8.0


I will not be doing more tests for a few days.

[whatcaneyedo]

That liverock looks pretty established. I dont think you're going to get much of a cycle until you start adding fish for some waste production.

Yes that is aptasia in the last picture.

[skabooya]

Yea I was thinking that about the cycle. Thats ok it means next time i go the LFS i can get my cuc :) Or maybe the good looking clowns they have there ??? what do you think.
fish or cuc first?? or both?

as for the little apaista .... GRRRRRRR!!!!!!
So far it is the only one ive seen on the LR so im going to try and blast it with some scalding hot water with my pipette. Ive seen it work before on another tank in another thread. Im hoping it will work with mine otherwise im off to order a pepermint shrimp :)

[skabooya]

BAHAHAHAHAHHAHA

so i just finished precision blasting with hot water on the apaista. I did 3 good squirts with a full pipette which fit completely over its tube and entire body. I cleaned up my materials and came back to check. I guess pods and shrimp like the smell of cooked apaista because they swarmed the area and ate the remnants. HAHAHAHA. Totally awsome to see.

[whatcaneyedo]

2 of my 3 tanks don't have a store bought cleanup crew and rely purely on the mini snails, brittle stars, worms, pods, and other bugs that hitch hiked into the tank. So my vote is for a fish first. But then again I have never started a tank from scratch so my advice should be taken with a grain of salt.

[skabooya]

a familiar part of the cycle, finally! I have a flourishing brown invasion of diatoms. Looks like testing later today or tomorrow and then a small cuc.

[skabooya]

Soon after the last post my diatoms cleared right up. Testing, everything was good. Went to the lfs and purchased 2 clowns (omen and nemo) they had from the Vancouver aquarium. Dragons breath macro algae was thrown in for free YAY! The clowns were perfect and still are. Very healthy and now come to my hand for food.
Today my husband went to the lfs and picked me up a pepermint shrimp. He too is doing awsome. Right away he started forraging for food, he didnt hide at all.

I have noticed with my tank I have to add nitrates via powdered ferts for my macro algae to stay red. They are too efficient at sucking up the trates. My testing still remains at 0 across the board. Unless i dose every week.
I dose baking soda 5mls a week to keep my alk up
KNO3 1/4tsp once a week to try and keep it at 5ppm

I will take a pic after I clean the tank and things have settled.

[whatcaneyedo]

Apart from commercial clam farms I've never heard of someone needing to supplement nitrate before.

[skabooya]

my livestock is still too minimal and overfeeding doesnt produce enough trates. when my macro algae go white/pale they are starving. i dose and within 1 day they are back to red. hopefully when the tank matures some more i wont need to dose as much, if any.
Oh! and i use tap as my top off because i want algae. the macro algae are more efficient at absorbtion than micro or pest/nuisance algae therefore they outcompete the micro algae. thus leaving me with a near algae free tank.

[skabooya]

the macro algae looks pale here because it was right before i dosed.
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/skabooya/July2010.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/skabooya/peppermintshrimp.jpg

Still looking for:
red with blue dots (superman) dioscema mushroom, rics and rics with blue in them, yumas, bicolour frogspawn or green with pink or purple tip frogspawn, cloves (not gsp), featherdusters, sargasseum macro algae and other macros that are not red or green. A softie or some coral that loves being in direct light and is not a calcium sucker.

[whatcaneyedo]

How do you feel about the film on the surface of the water in your tank?

[skabooya]

The film doesnt bother me in the least. Its mostly bubbles anyway. If i dont dose and my macro go pale/white the film nearly goes away. Id rather have a healthy livestock than worry about looks on the top of my water. Im not interested in buying a surface skimmer. Meh.
My tunze hob skimmer does a pretty good job as is. I have it on the lowest setting so it leaves more "junk" in the water for the macros to thrive.
The fish and shrimp are doing amazing. Ive been very lucky to get such good stock. They have huge personalities too.
Now i want to get a coral beauty.. but im hoping it wont eat my nice macro algae or munch on the softies im going to get. Yikes. Makes me think about another fish but not much else interests me.
6 lines are nice but ive read too many controversial things about them.
Yasha goby i LOVE but geez are they expensive.
Yellow tail blue damsels i LOVE but i would want a group and my tank is too small for them.
I just dont know hmmmm

[skabooya]

Got some corals in yesterday from hockey nut. THANK YOU.
1 multi coloured ric
3 rhodactus shrooms
1 green spot shroom
1 ice blue clove frag
1 pink zoas
1 purple gorg
red macro
Im in love.
I will take pics when everything is happy and has coloured up. But so far it looks pretty good :)
Thanks again.

Im seariously considering this to be a mushroom tank now with lots of macro of course. No LPS.
Im still looking for blue shrooms and rics (im in love with rics so pretty much any colour is fine by me), Yuma, cloves, different kinds of macro, feather dusters, zoas but not many.
specifically looking for red with blue dots (superman) dioscema mushroom

for livestock im thinking of either a group of gobies or a coral beauty (afraid it will eat my macro) or maybe both. hmmmm

[skabooya]

Alright im putting pics in early. Some items like the ric are still closed up but it still shows its colour :)
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/skabooya/saltytankJuly26.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/skabooya/rhodactusmushroomjuly26.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/skabooya/greenspotshroomjuly26.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/skabooya/greenskirtrhodactusjuly26.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/skabooya/closedricjuly26.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/skabooya/babybluerhodactusjuly26.jpg

[tang daddy]

Great start Vanessa, I bet you must be happy to get your tank filled with corals....

I have hit the floor running and havent looked back. the only limiting factor for me is space argh!!!!

[skabooya]

thanks. it was like chistmas. i even finally let my husband take Logan in the stroller so i could walk out of the airport with my box of coral. This is going to be it for quite a while because we are spending about 50,000 on house renos for the outside of our house (roof, windows, siding) it NEEDS to get done for safetys sake.

[skabooya]

i am so ****ed off!!!
this morning i fed 2 clowns. about an hour ago i went to feed the corals ... guess what only one clown. i tore everything apart trying to find him. the whole room is a mess and i found him between the stand and bookshelf about 2 feet off the floor stuck to the side of the stand. i had to use a sheet of paper to scrape him off. he was dry with eyes sunken in.
he was 27 freakin dollars and super healthy.
to top it off my almost 3 month old is teething; super screamer, and i lost his soother. nothing is calming him down.
i havent even gotten dressed yet. im still in my tank top and undies since 5am when logan woke up.
geez what a horrible day.

[skabooya]

Alright so i'm calmer now lol.
Im making plans to build a screen for the top of my tank. I was also strongly considering going invert only yesterday too lol

Im thinking im going to make the screen/cover in two pieces. One for the front of the tank and one for the back. The light in the middle will have nothing under it. Its sitting just over the water and spans my entire tank. No gaps at all for fish to squeeze out of there.

Im going to use polypropaline netting if i can find it for the front of the tank. I will string it to window screen frame if i can find that too. This way its light enough for me to remove for whatever i need for the tank. It also looks nicer too.

The back part of the tank is going to be an issue. I have a HOB Tunze 9002 and a few wires coming out the back corners of the tank. I would need a mesh that is sturdy enough for me to cut holes in it just big enough for the skimmer cup to fit and the wires to fit without it sagging. I will obviously need to build a frame for support but i will need something skinny enough to go in between the skimmer cup and my lights. There is very little space there and i need something that is not flammable.
I was thinking of using rigid plastic mesh and a plastic rod... maybe PVC im not sure yet as the frame. Im not worried about the back looking gross. No one is going to see it. It will need to be easily removable as well so i can clean the back glass.

Next time i go to the lfs im going to look for another clown... I hope the clown i have now doesnt kill the new one.
Im also strongly considering a 6 line wrasse.
I would also like to get a couple of hermits and a skunk cleaner.
I wouldnt mind a goby either or a dartfish but they arent carried much by our lfs and im worried the 6 line will attack and kill it.
We shall see though.

[skabooya]

went to the lfs yesterday and picked up another clown and 2 blue leg hermits; i couldnt resist.
When i got home i noticed the new clown had no mouth. Grrr so i called the petstore and they will trade me for one that does have a mouth. So now there is one on hold for me. I will pick it up on saturday.


OH and I also got a bunch of corals from tang daddy a little while ago. Very nice corals. I love them and they are all doing well. I will post pics when they are more settled in and colour up some more.

My other corals from hockey nut are colouring up very nicely. The branching gorg however is a lost cause. Its melting away day by day. There is too much to clip away now. Im just leaving it in the tank to see what happens but 80% of it is now gone. :(
I really liked that purple tree. My husband called it "the broken stick"

[skabooya]

So a few things have happened in my tank. The water got all cloudy for a few days and I was wondering WTF?? So I tested and noticed my trates were up a bit. I looked around, counted my livestock, everything was there... BUT, in the sandbed I noticed an open white clam shell. I thought, weird. I left the tank to clear out the cloudiness and it did. Then it got cloudy again and I looked around and noticed another clam shell. Then the water went clear again... then a couple days later cloudy again. I looked in the same spot.... Another clam shell. I grabbed a mirror to look at the underside of my LR and I couldnt see much but they are comming from that area. I wonder who is eating the clams... or are they just dying. Meh either way it doesnt bother me. They are hitch hikers and Im not getting mad at whom ever is enjoying fresh clams as much as I do ;)

I also watched something very freaky happen with my hermit crabs. My larger hermit had its claws in the smaller hermits shell. I thought "Nooooo" and in 2 seconds the large crab pulled out the smaller hermit in 2 pieces and flung him to either side and then immediately shoved his claws back into the shell. I watched in horror as the two pieces of little hermie floated and rolled along the sandbed hitting rubble and zoas as it went by. My poor little hermie. HOWEVER, 1 hour later I looked at my tank again and notice not 1 but 2 hermies. YES little hermie just molted. He was not ripped in half by big hermie. YAY!!! What a freaky thing to watch though. lol

I moved some corals around to make room for some new additions comming in September and then that will be it until next year.

My husband; God bless him; bought me a fish from the lfs. Its on hold there and he says its for my saltwater tank. He says its really cool looking and its one that ive talked about before. Hmmmmm I wonder what it could be. Its in quarentine until the lfs deems it safe to send to a new home. Now im not allowed to go to the lfs until the fish is ready for pick up so I dont ruin the surprise.
Im actually more scared than excited. What if he bought me a puffer or a tang or something. eeek

[skabooya]

Pictures:
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/skabooya/aug2010.jpg
big hermie with claws in little hermies shell
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/skabooya/bighermie.jpg
blue ric
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/skabooya/blueric.jpg
green with orange spot mushroom
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/skabooya/greewithorangespotmushroom.jpg
superman rhodactious
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/skabooya/supermanrhodactious.jpg
some kind of new macroalgae... a type of bryopsis
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/skabooya/DSC_3512.jpg

[skabooya]

didnt like that green algae. Parts of it kept going white and then it was green again blah blah blah so i just removed it.

Got my shipment of coral in from Tang daddy yesterday. Nice stuff but it arrived in cold water. I guess the bus depot place kept it in a cool area.
I will let them get used to their new place before i take any pics.

I recieved:
Lariat zoas
ice blue cloves (hoping these ones survive, they dont ship very well)
neon green candycane (so bright it hurts my eyes)
green sinularia
green ric
pink tip froggy
Green and orange monti cap. (i wanted to give these a try.)

Dont know whats wrong with all my zoas. They opened up the day i got them and thats it. They are very wrinkley like an old persons face. Only one or two from each frag will open up sometimes and thats bairly. I just see a little skirt and thats it. Sometimes they open enough for a polyp to eat and then close up again.
Ive dipped them, nothing happened. I cant see any pests on them. No spots, nothing out of the ordinary from pics i see online. Just wrinkley like they are deflated or something like that. Ive tried to do research but i come up with nothing but unrelated issues. Ive moved them to a lower flow area and lower light.
Any suggestions??

[skabooya]

So I picked up a calcium and magnesium test kit because of the sps and lps. Guess what. Im way off. My calcium is down at 300ppm. To slowly raise it to just over 400 is going to take me 10 days of 1/2tsp a day of seachem calcium and magnesium additive. When i get it up to the right level im going to calculate how fast its used up so i know exactly how much to dose and how often.

I knew IO salt was low in this stuff but geez.

[whatcaneyedo]

IO actually isn't low unless you're using an old bucket. http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1714505 The new values are pretty good and right around where I target. Of course there still can be some variation between batches... but those should be minor.

[skabooya]

Shouldnt be old. I just bought the stuff a few months ago. Maybe a bad batch?? hmm
In any case its only been a 1/2 hour and guess what i see. zoas starting to open up :) Just a little but its still more than before. I guess they do need some more calcium and magnesium. Poor guys.

Also SURPRISE! my hubby came back with my fishie surprise hes been talking about. Its my absolutely most fav fish EVER!!! Coral beauty. Stunning fish. So far she (im calling it a she) hasent picked on any coral. Just the rock work and sand. She stole my peppermint shrimps home lol and loves hanging out with my clowns who have just recently laid eggs!!! mmmm free food. Shes a pig and is a pretty calm one so far.

[whatcaneyedo]

Have you tested your newly mixed up saltwater or just your tank water? Your tank water is obviously going to be lower if you haven't been supplementing simply because its been getting used up.

[skabooya]

omg duh. thanks i totally forgot about checking the fresh salt mix lol.

[skabooya]

So i havent taken any pics yet like i normally do because i dosed the tank with prazi pro for my Coral beauty angelfish. The tank was quite cloudy. It cleared up for a day but Im also turning off the skimmer on weekends and feeding coral those days and using selcon and garlic extreme. Skimmer gets turned back on for the week. The tank hasent really cleared up yet but it is much better.

I also tried cleaning off my zoas again which only opened for a day when i recieved them and havent open since. Ive tried dips, and scrubs. They havent really worked. So, I tried putting them in a higher flow area which in turn is actually higher up in the tank and much closer to the lights... guess what... the brown film that was coating them is going away and they are slowy starting to open up. YAY! Hope they open up all the way but i wish they would survive on my sandbed so they are easier to frag. Now i dont know if it was the stronger flow or higher light or both that are making them happy. Im wondering about getting another powerhead to put along the sandbed for a higher flow.... but my mushrooms are happy with the flow so im also wondering about doing a total re-plan of my scape.
Im thinking all rics and mushrooms of any kind at the bottom of my tank. LPS at the uppermost part of my tank and zoas in the middle to top.

How can i frag zoas without cutting off the rock they are on too???? They look like they would be hard to peel off unlike gsp. The rocks they will be remaining on will not be able to come out of the tank for fragging either. *Sigh* How to do it???

[skabooya]

tank ended up being super duper cloudy. I couldnt see to the back of the tank. I added activated carbon. Feeding a lot less (Im afraid of starving animals in there now), running skimmer 24/7 and guess what i have now... green water.
In any case I have too many organics in the water. My pod population went way way down after adding the prazi pro.
Stupid thing said it was supposted to be safe in the display. I guess its not. Never again!

All params are still good. The corals are suffering a bit now because of the lack of light due to the cloudyness.

Im going to try another WC to see if it temporarily helps but all i can do now really is play the waiting game until the green water goes away. In my planted tank it took almost a month (2 years ago) but then it was super crystal clear.

[skabooya]

So now my tank is clearing up. I can see to the back of it now. Its still cloudy but not anywhere near as bad as it was previously.
Go figure my zoas are all open and looking good where as when the water was clear they were closed and unhappy and wrinkley covered in brown slime. hmmmm

Anyway All the other corals are not happy, my mushrooms are white and my green with orange spot mushroom is almost gone. My lps are shrivelled up. Rics have no colour to them anymore. Macro on the other hand is BRIGHT RED!

I guess it was too long with minimal light (about a month) so now i dont expect many of my coral to survive :(

[Madreefer]

Is there a reson you treated your whole tank with prazipro? Someone else should chime in but I think that stuff kills alot of things such as pods and inverts. Was it for a flukes treatment? You may have had alot of die off in your tank that could cause the nitrates. Not the greatest idea to add chemicals like that in your display tank. More for quarantine tanks.

[skabooya]

Prazi pro says its supposted to be safe in display tanks and causes no harm to inverts, corals, etc. Yes it was for flukes
Well my inverts are completely fine but my pod population is at almost nothing. So, im guessing thats what helped cause the green water.

in any case its getting much better now... despite coral loss from lack of light

[skabooya]

Water is almost clear YAY!
Coral loss:
All monti caps (4)
orange spot green mushroom
green spot mushroom and its babies


Coral almost gone but may recover with superb care:
frogspawn
candycane
superman rhodactus
blue with green skirt rhodactus


coral unaffected or doing way better than before:
zoas (5 frags)
green sinularia
baby blue rhodactus
brown ish rhodactus
blue mushroom
rics

[skabooya]

we need a picture. I dont have any of the tank yet but maybe this halloween pic of my baby will do
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/skabooya/halloweenfriends.jpg

[skabooya]

So, I went shopping today at the lfs looking to get a small piece of LR to put some pods in my tank; since my population went to pod heaven.
I ended up buying 2 rocks. 1 which had red bubble algae on it, very pretty as well as a bunch of calpura; grape and razor? I need to look it up. which i didnt want but oh well. second rock had a hawian feather duster on it. I took it home and found it had way more feather dusters on it. It has a few red ones and a few blue ones on it. Very cool. Lots of baby ones in red and blue that are under the rock right now. Im hoping they grow and stretch to the front where i can see them. Right now I can only see the hawian feather duster and the back of the blue one.
I also picked up another candycane coral. It has 11 heads on it. I got it for $34. I really love how they fluoress under my lights.

Anyway still no pics yet. Ive been super duper busy. Im hoping I will take one within the next couple of days.

[Seafan]

That really is a sweeeet photo, I think you'd do really well if you entered it in a cutest baby contest, or even a pet contest. Really adorable. Oh and glad to hear your tank is turning back around to the good for you.

[skabooya]

YAY i have a picture to post YAY.
Its a pretty bad one and its still pretty cloudy but its mountains away from what it was. It still has a long way to go but im optimistic.
PS I recieved some more macro algae from JLA :)

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/skabooya/November2010.jpg

[skabooya]

Back from PG and got a lot of new things for my tank. I visited Russell and got some nice corals from him. I traded him for some mushrooms, macroalgae, xenia and zoas.

I also went to an awsome fishstore. The owners name is Alan and his store/buisness is called "All Clear Aquarium services" His prices are the best i have seen locally. I picked up some salt from him and coral snow. I wanted to get some coral too but i didnt have room in my cooler as it was full of corals from russell :)

Anyway I strongly suggest people go check out All Clear Aquarium Services in PG. allclear@telus.net

Im a fan and will be going there again next time im in PG. OH and Russells tank is sooo nice in person. Very nice set up.

Oh and if Alan reads this. You made me want to get a LED lighting system now. Thanks for making me dig deeper into my pockets to try and find the bits of whatever that i can to get one. LOL

[whatcaneyedo]

Thanks for dropping in, helping me create some more space and introducing me to your relative. I contacted his employer and they may hire me in a week or so which is great.

[skabooya]

Woo Hoo!!!. I hope you get the job. :)
Enjoy your trip down south.

[skabooya]

well its been a while so heres an update. My water went super green again. I added a fluval U2 to my tank so i could add carbon and other medias easily. Well it worked for a few days but went back to green again. I thought it needed to be changed more often so ive been doing that. No go. Ive fed A LOT less... no go. I started using coral snow... no go. Ive been doing huge WC. It helps out a bit but then the water goes back to green. *sigh*

So anyway. I did some more reading about green water. It could be either of two things. Phyto or algae. Im thinking it may be phyto because i have no algae issues in my tank other than the green water. Its green all the time. It doesnt get less or more green throughout the day. Carbon and Polishing filter floss doesnt help. WC dont really help.
Soooo, Im currently trying to buy a UVS.

Im hoping that a UVS will solve the issue.

Ive had a few coral die on me because of lack of light :( very sad.

[whatcaneyedo]

If you get an adequately sized protien skimmer you wont have phytoplankton problems.

[skabooya]

So you think my tunze 9002 isint good enough? Maybe I need a bigger one ?

[skabooya]

So I purchased a coralive turbo twist UV steralizer to help with my green water problem that wont seem to go away no matter what i do. Its been 8 days since the install and wow what a difference. I can see into the tank easily now. The water is still a bit cloudy so im going to leave the UVS on for another week at least until the tank is crystal then take it off and see how it goes.
Most of my macro algae is dead and you know what... thats ok. Im thinking that im not going to force my tank any which way anymore. If it does not want to be a macro algae tank then it wont be. I will focus on what does well in my tank.
My candycane coral is beautiful and has split a lot. I was quite surprised. My rics are doing beautifully as well as my mushrooms. One of my rhodactus mushrooms split and i now have 2 of them. YAY!
My zoas are doing good although some have completely dissipeared. The rocks they were on, everything gone. I cant find them anywhere.

This year i will only be able to put in one coral order. We are now living on one paycheck. My mat leave is over, and i have no job to go back to anymore. I am a teacher and requested that when i am called for subbing that i be called at least a day in advance so i can find a baby sitter. The response to that was that i will not be called very often then. As it is my other substitute teacher friends have told me that they have not been called very much either. To top it all off one of the schools will be closing which puts more teachers out of work and me lower on the seniority list thus giving me less chance of getting called in for a job.
My husbands paycheck has been reduced by 20% for sobattical leave in 2 years for a family reunion in Newfoundland.

My tank is going to grow very slowly it seems lol
I am going to focus on easy care coral like softies.
I am going to try for a collection of different xenia, zoas, mushrooms, rics and yumas. Any macroalgae that mixes in there is fine by me. I love cloves and gorgs but it seems like they dont enjoy my tank.

Hopefully a job will come up for me and life will be easier. We have a lot of renos that NEED to get done. Plus a new little person here with us that demands certain things.

Oh well, life goes on and a clear tank with growing corals is very comforting :) And my little man (my son Logan) Loves to stare at the tank and talk to the fish.

[skabooya]

Tank is beautifully clear now. However im fighting off cyano. Blah. Looks kind of like red hair algae thats easy to remove.
Ive been spot siphoning daily and adding coral snow daily as well. So far Im not making a dent. It just keeps comming back. Any other suggestions?

Photoperiod is 12hrs with 2x39w T5HO. Should I reduce it?
any other options??

[Carrera75]

Try Boyd Chemi-Clean. It has always worked for me with no side effects.

http://www.jlaquatics.com/product/bd-cclean/Boyd+Chemi-Clean+-+2+Gram+%28Treats+300+Gallons%29.html

[whatcaneyedo]

12 hours sounds pretty excessive if both of them on are on for that amount of time. I'd cut back. Also, how old are the bulbs? I always get cyano when my bulbs have exceeded their useful life. There are a lot of threads on this site about cyano problems. Have a look and I'm sure you'll find your solution.

[skabooya]

My bulbs are almost a year old so im thinking that is more than likely the problem because ive never had this problem before. Ive read a bunch of threads about cyano and mine seems to be the low nutrient loving cyano that looks like hair algae but very whispy and pink/brown. Its very easy to remove manually. Coral snow isint doing a thing to it. Im going to try dosing it at night when the lights are out.
Im putting the lights back a few hours too.
Im going to order new bulbs soon as well.
At least my corals are looking FAB now. Im in love with them. :)
I was reading somewhere that it helps if your rock is 60% covered with coral. hmmmm well im putting in 1 coral order soon with Carrera75 :)

I dont want to add anymore chemicals to my tank after my last experience with it. My tank went green for months. Its only clear now because of UVS i got from thegrizz.
Adding anything will be an absolute last resort.

[skabooya]

*sigh* Life sucks sometimes.
First my dad passes away suddenly from lung cancer July 6, 2009. 7 months later my grandpa (Vavo) that helped raise me passes away from diabetes (kidney failure). My uncle passed away this valentines day from a sudden heart attack and brain anurism (the doctors know both happened at about the same time) and now my grandma (Vavo) whom i was very close too and also helped raise me is in the hospital dying. Her heart is very weak and they are expecting heart failure.

I feel horrible for my mom. Her husband dies, then her father and now her mother is going to go all within the span of 3 years. I cant take this anymore. So many emotions and family politics.
My familys history is all leaving us faster than we would have liked. There is still so much more i want to learn from my Vavo. She was supposted to teach me how to make octopus stew on the weekend :( Im the one carrying on the portuguese way. Its just my mom and me doing it. No one else in the family is or wants to carry it on.

Im so lost.

[skabooya]

Tank update. I did take a pic of my nice clean and clear tank but i havent uploaded any pics from my camera since valentines day. The family has been in a bit of turmoil.

I decided to pull up some of my grape calpura from the sandbed and a big plume of green mushroomed into the water column. greeeaaat.
So guess what. Green water once again. I pluged in the UVS and after a few days i saw the water slowly get worse... hmmm
I checked the light and found the uv light wasent working. I had to tinker with it a bit and i found that its very tempermental. I moved the uvs to the back of my tank so its not im my direct view. Its working now but its going to be at least a week before my tank clears up again.
This time im seariously considering leaving it on and i will just replace the bulb every year.
Now however i need to put in a background to hide that ugly piece of equiptment. I really liked my grey wall neutral background. Now i dont know what to put there. It needs to be paper thin. I know i dont want blue. Black is okay and is usually my default but i wanted a clean look.
White may be too white. Maybe mirror paper?

Any suggestions?

Im still looking to add more macro algae this time i dont care what kinds, calcium suckers or not im dosing calcium weekly and params are stable.
Ive started dosing KNO3 again to get my macros up to their former glory. I wish i could try red gracillera again (long stringy and bush like... kind of purple) I loved it. The sargassum was awsome too but i dont think i had enough light for brown algaes.

I am also looking for mushrooms of various colours and patterns. I had a really nice green mushroom with orange spots and a nice orange rhodactus that didnt make it through the green water outbreak. My other mushrooms are doing very well.
Does anyone know where i can get the following colours (red coral online has some of them but i cant afford that big stunningly beautiful rock or the shippping for it)
green marbled
green striped
green with orange spots
red with white stripes
red with blue dots
blue dot


I also really want to try cloves again. The blue cloves i always ordered never came to me alive.. well one did but it was on its way out.
I am also looking for different varieties of xenia to attach to my back wall.


I wish my corals would grow faster. My lps are growing very well but my mushrooms are very very very slow. Only one has split.

[Madreefer]

So when are you coming to PG? I have been holding on to that frogspawn for you.I also have some shrooms if you'd like them. My clove polyps are slowly going away from from main tank but I have a very large rock that i took out and put in my refuge. It still has alot on it. LMK

[hillegom]

I would think twice about xenia. I had it for a while, but found it too prolific.
I like blue or black for a back wall.

[skabooya]

Well, my bulbs finally came in and i just installed them. WOW what a difference. You never truly appreciate the change in spectrum until you re install new bulbs after a year.
I thought my lights were still putting out an okay spectrum... minus the cyano that has been slowly spreading through my tank. But now with my new bulbs. Holy Blue Batman! My old bulbs went white/pink on me by comparison.

Im hoping now that this will help with the cyano bacteria fight.

[skabooya]

tank is getting more stable now. I turned the uvs off again. Its been off for almost 2 weeks and everything is going well. I pulled a bunch of green grape and now i have a bunch of white buds (new growth) My dragons breath is suffering but im hoping that it will come back.
Im thinking of getting another light fixture. Either a single or a double fixture to put some 6500k bulbs for my macroalgae. Im looking into an LED fixture too for the plants. I wonder what will work.

[MKLKT]

I remember when I switched from the old Coralife bulbs that the previous owner of my light hood had to KZ coral 1, 2, fiji purple and blue+ and I could barely look at the tank it was so intense, haha.

[Edit] Oh, and I have Botryocladia macro if you're still looking for it, but not sure how to effectively frag it if you were interested in some. Mine is almost big enough to split up.

Well, my bulbs finally came in and i just installed them. WOW what a difference. You never truly appreciate the change in spectrum until you re install new bulbs after a year.
I thought my lights were still putting out an okay spectrum... minus the cyano that has been slowly spreading through my tank. But now with my new bulbs. Holy Blue Batman! My old bulbs went white/pink on me by comparison.

Im hoping now that this will help with the cyano bacteria fight.

[skabooya]

Picture update. Please be gentle. Much has died since the green water. However things are looking up now and I hope to have things nice and lush again in a couple of months :)
I finally figured out what caused my green water... ammonia spike from dead peppermint shrimp that i could never and still have not found.

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/skabooya/DSC_5892.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/skabooya/dmushmay3.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/skabooya/DSC_5898.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/skabooya/DSC_5915.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/skabooya/rhmushmay3.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/skabooya/rhmushmay32011.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/skabooya/rmushmay3.jpg

[skabooya]

Well I guess when you do enough research you can find the solution to your problem. My problem is i really like gorgs but i couldnt keep them in my tank. A few months ago I found a post on another forum saying they need light that is able to handle sps to thrive. But how much is that? Some need more than others. A few days ago I stumbled upon a few threads as well as a macro algae site that explained gorg lighting care. They need a minimum of 3wpg and do best at 4-5wpg. So, that means I dont have enough light. Im at about 2.2wpg. Ive been tossing the idea around of getting another hagen glo fixture. So, I bought one yesterday. I just need to wait for it to come in. In the meantime im going to research bulb combos.
I know i need a 10,000k bulb and another in the range of 5000-7000K (sunlight), And another that is either actinic or with actinic properties. Then I will need 1 more bulb. I need to do more research to find out what bulb that is.
Once its all set up im going to try gorgs one more time. :) Not to mention the extra light is good for my macros.

OH PS.
I ripped out about a pound of green grape calpura. Im going to take more out once the dust settles. Quite a learning experience. I really should manually mix the sandbed more often. My corals seem to really like it. Im guessing extra nutrients are released?? In any case the day after it was done they were all happy happy.

[whatcaneyedo]

Photosynthetic gorgonians also like really strong surging back and forth flow and some amount of feeding (rotifers seems to work). With SPS you can use random turbulent flow or surging, it doesn't necessarily matter as much because they grow out in many directions anyways. Some gorgonians on the other hand can begin to look really weird in time if kept in random turbulent flow because they begin to do the same and loose their flat shape.

My Pterogorgia I've had for 2.5 years now and all of those things have worked alright for me (intense light, semi-surging flow, and occasional feeding). However the Gorgonia ventalina only lasted a year. I don't think it was a lighting issue with it. I think instead it didn't have enough flow and the food that I was offering was of too large a particle size. But until the ban on their collection is lifted again we wont find any available anyways...

[skabooya]

I had the gorgs eating reef roids and coral frenzy because thats what the owners i got them from ate. Im hoping the problem was just the lighting for me. We shall see.

[skabooya]

IM NOT A FRAG VIRGIN ANYMORE!!!!
I fragged all 3 of my rics. We shall see how it goes. My green ric with blue skirt and my yellowey green ric with pink mouth were just cut between mouths (in half) and my blue ric I ended up cutting between two mouths and cutting one half of it off the rubble it was on and put that piece on a piece of rubble. Im hoping it attaches. Time will tell. They actually look really good thus far.

I changed my dosing a bit to see how this goes.
I am now putting my fertilizers and additives into the top off water containers. I need to top off every 3 days, about 1 gal a week now so putting the powder additves into my TO water makes things much much easier. Im putting in calcium and alk (baking soda) in the TO storage bottles. I havent added KNO3 or KH2PO4 in the bottles yet. However with the extra lights, daily feedings for both the fish and corals I am noticing a big difference. My red dragons tongue is comming back to life. the plants closest to the light (3 inches away) are RED with orange tips again. Stunning. The ones farthest away from the light are still just pink but are starting to colour up.
I pulled most of the grape calpura to make room for new macros and to help reguvinate the calpura.

Im picking up a few more corals (mostly mushies). Im also trying to find some more macro. Im on a waitlist at JLA and Im in contact with a few other people but nothing is solid yet.
I would really like to find some purple gorgs or other somewhat colourful or nicely shaped photosynthetic gorgs to put in my tank. I have an awsome spot for them.
Im also looking at sun corals again. Some people feed them with only coral frenzy and they fair very well, although im thinking that coral frenzy and reef roids are too small. I may abandon this idea.

I moved some of my coral around because some didnt like the bright light and are now much happier at the bottom of my tank. Kinda funny how some light requirements are totally backwards for some of the inhabitants in my tank.

We shall see how things go over the next couple of weeks with the new changes.

[skabooya]

I never knew how much builds up and inside powerheads until today. I decided to pick the macro algae out of one of my koralia's and I noticed some bubble algae inside it so; I took the whole thing apart and noticed it was FULL of bubble algae. It would come off easily so I dipped the entire powerhead in vinegar for 30min and the stuff came off very easily. Pretty much melted. Now im doing the other powerhead. The flow increased tremendously. My macros will love it.

Note to self: clean powerheads yearly at least.

[skabooya]

I went to feed the fish today with my son because he loves watching them swim around to eat Well, the tank seemed kinda empty. I was looking for my fav fish and I found it... floating in the corner by the heater. :(
Bye bye my coral beauty. I wish I knew why you died. It was so fast and you seemed perfect yesterday. I can only assume it was my fault. :(

I MISS YOU!!!!

[skabooya]

YAY for JL Aquatics!!! Yet again they are awsome and brought in a bunch of macro that ive been waiting for. Their service is just amazing and every time I deal with them I am always impressed.
I just put in an order and should be recieving it next week.
Im so excited!
Im getting:
Sargassum (im trying this again because now I have more light :) )
codium
red grape
halmedia (money plant)
red feather
More calpura I dont know what kind. The team is throwing it in
Some kind of red calcifying macro which they are throwing in too :)

Did I say how awsome they are.

Thanks guys :)

[Pipes1234]

I concur ! There is no LFS where I live and so I use JL ... everytime I'm very happy .. Frags are nice , healthy and always a good size .... There always helpful and go out of there way for me to make sure I get what I want !!

[don.ald]

lucky you. i want what your getting:mrgreen:
YAY for JL Aquatics!!! Yet again they are awsome and brought in a bunch of macro that ive been waiting for. Their service is just amazing and every time I deal with them I am always impressed.
I just put in an order and should be recieving it next week.
Im so excited!
Im getting:
Sargassum (im trying this again because now I have more light :) )
codium
red grape
halmedia (money plant)
red feather
More calpura I dont know what kind. The team is throwing it in
Some kind of red calcifying macro which they are throwing in too :)

Did I say how awsome they are.

Thanks guys :)

[Alpha]

YAY for JL Aquatics!!! Yet again they are awsome and brought in a bunch of macro that ive been waiting for.

Hi skabooya,

How'd you manage to order some macros from them? I went to their website and couldn't find any page with macro algae or plants??

Thanks.

[skabooya]

What they have posted are only examples of what they have in stock. It also says that you need to call or e-mail for availability. One day I just asked and Ive been in contact ever since. Im on their waitlist for rare macros :) They have quite a large waitlist. and they sell out fast :)

Give them a shout, they are a great team.

And hey when my macro grows out I can ship some frags of it too :)YAY!

Im still looking for some more macros.

Im thinking I may just need to upgrade to a bigger tank soon. hehehehe Need to talk to hubby about that one

[whatcaneyedo]

YAY for JL Aquatics!!! Yet again they are awsome and brought in a bunch of macro that ive been waiting for. Their service is just amazing and every time I deal with them I am always impressed.
I just put in an order and should be recieving it next week.
Im so excited!
Im getting:
Sargassum (im trying this again because now I have more light :) )
codium
red grape
halmedia (money plant)
red feather
More calpura I dont know what kind. The team is throwing it in
Some kind of red calcifying macro which they are throwing in too :)

Did I say how awsome they are.

Thanks guys :)

Apart from Codium I've watched all of those hit the bottom of a garbage can at some point. One mans trash is anothers treasure I guess. Its too bad you live there and have to pay for it.

[skabooya]

I know. I have posted a few times that I was looking for various macro algaes but no one replied so I had to purchase some from JLA. Im not complaining, im getting some nice stuff.
The only other way I recieved macro was through asking other reefers on here if they had any. I would buy from them or get some for free because they were just going in the garbage anyway.

[msjboy]

Check this member for the octahde...wish he was here in Vancouver as I wouldn't mind some...http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=76733....member in Calgary.


Is there a big oh swing at nite with all that macro algae in ones tank?

Msjboy

[skabooya]

I already messaged him. Weve been talking :)
Shipping from there is nuts. Why is it that shipping from ontario is the same if not cheaper then shipping from alberta? I dont get it. And even more so, shipping from Vancouver to me is even more pricey. It seems the closer you are the more expensive it is. I dont get it. But for regular mail like sending a package to a loved one is $$$ the farther you go.

[msjboy]

Just wondering if worth checking out JL's macro algae stock... how much are the various algaes you just bought?

I think I got some nitophyllum (red dictyota) from King Ed and it was only $5.00.... looks something like a sea fan /Gorg which I like. They on various occasions have interesting stock but only one or two.
Some images at:

http://open-reef.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=22 ( see image )... colour of mine is red.

msjboy

[skabooya]

The cost depends on the size of the macro. The most i had to pay for macro was 14.99 but you get a really decent sized portion. For example Last year when I ordered sargassum it was HUGE with side branches and everything. I also got 3 softball sized portions of red graceillera for the same price. Some I ordered this time were only 4.99 because they were "small" but when they come in I will see how big they are.

You will need to contact JLA to see whats in stock or to be put on their waitlist and to ask for specifics.
I bought all types they brought in except 2. I really liked the other 2 they had as well but im on a budget.

msjboy I love that macro. Maybe some day we can trade macros :)

[skabooya]

FTS before my new macros show up.
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/skabooya/FTSJuly2011.jpg

[skabooya]

I think my tank inhabitants are trying to tell me something. They're spelling it in the algae I forget to scrape off.

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/skabooya/DSC_6419.jpg

[skabooya]

BOOYA!!! My macro came in TODAY!!! UPS site said thursday but it came in TODAY!
I just finished adding and arranging my macro algae. The tank is FULL. I am loving it soo much.
When i saw some of the freebies I almost cried, I was in love. I also got some bonus hitch hikers :) I got a bunch of feather dusters, some brittle stars, some snails, a RED MUSHROOM! and some other coral. It was closed up and loose, im not sure what it is but when and if it opens up I will let you know what it is.
One of the pieces of red grape had apastia on it so I had to chuck that piece. To be on the safe side I want to pick up another pepermint shrimp just to make sure there are no more.

I love JLA. They always give me what I want and more. Their portion sizes are amazing. Their "small" size is more like a medium and in some cases large :)

I had a bunch of loose pieces of codium as well as some other algae. Maybe green gracileria. As soon as i added them to the tank they flew around so wherever they attach I hope they grow :)

I already took some pics but I wont be able to post them until later.
EEEK IM IN LOVE!!

[skabooya]

Here are some pics. Nothing has really settled in yet but Im anxious :)
FTS
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/skabooya/July2011.jpg

Tiger Striped serpent starfish (hitch hiker)
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/skabooya/Tigerstripedserpentstarjuly2011.jpg

Sargassum
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/skabooya/sargassumjuly2011.jpg

Red feather
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/skabooya/redfeatherjuly2011.jpg

Red calciferous (unknown)
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/skabooya/redcalciumjuly2011.jpg

Botryocladia (Red bubble)
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/skabooya/redbubblejuly2011.jpg

Red mushroom (hitch hiker)
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/skabooya/redmushroomjuly.jpg

Halmedia optuna
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/skabooya/halymediamoneyplantjuly2011.jpg

Codium
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/skabooya/codiumjuly2011.jpg

Calpura Profilera
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/skabooya/calpuraprofilerajuly2011.jpg

There is also an unknown coral but i think its a small xenia frag. Also a bunch of feather dusters, brittle stars, and some snails.

[Alpha]

I love JLA. They always give me what I want and more. Their portion sizes are amazing. Their "small" size is more like a medium and in some cases large :)


Haha yeah nice! But YOU'RE actually doing THEM a favor, and paying them for it too! LOL. When they get new batches of live rock, there's always some macro algae attached. Now when this stuff rots on the live rock, it increases the time for the rock to be "cured". By taking as much of this stuff off the rock, they lessen the curing time and from people like you, make a quick buck too! Most people buying live rock would rather by the "cured" type, than the "raw" type.

Over all, I guess its a win-win situation. :)

[skabooya]

So, last night I got curious and decided to look at my tanks night life. Very cool stuff. here are a couple of shots before I explain the weird sexual orgey I witnessed.

Candycane sweepers
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/skabooya/candycanesweepers.jpg

Hydroids
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/skabooya/Hydroid.jpg

And now for the weird sex
I was using my sons night light toy thingie to look into my tank and these little maggot things were attracted to the light. There were 2 colours; Pink/peach and blue/purple. There ended up being about 40ish around the light and they would follow it like one of those dog/cat lazer toys. Anyway, when they got to the sandbed I noticed that the blue ones would smear white goo along the glass. It was gross, looked like almost cooked runny egg whites or when a bug hits your windsheild and you have a spray of goo but it was white. And upon even closer inspection I noticed there were little dots in the goo. Then I realized... EWWW SPERM. Eggs too but EWWW. Kind of like salmon if you really think about it. But anyway here are some pics AND a video of the 2 coloured maggot things.

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/skabooya/nightwtf.jpg

Money Shot... well not really all you can really see are the blue dot eggs under the maggot things and some film (sperm) around the eggs.
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/skabooya/nightwtfeggs.jpg

Video of these weird creatures
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/skabooya/th_DSC_6592.jpg (http://s12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/skabooya/?action=view&current=DSC_6592.mp4)


Ok and now a normal video of my tank. A tour basically.
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/skabooya/th_DSC_6604.jpg (http://s12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/skabooya/?action=view&current=DSC_6604.mp4)

[ferret]

I'm pleased to have a member in BC keeping a marine plant display tank! ( J&L told me that only a few guys looking for algae )I have been setting a macro algae tank ( 120 gal system ) and collecting various algae for more than 5 years. I switched my collection from green to red 1.5 years ago
( 85% of algae in DT are red in color ). Occasionally, I'll prepare some frags of algae on rock and send to J&L & King Ed for trading other saltwater stuff. I can't or don't know how to post pictures to the thread ( not enought size ) but I can send you my photos for sharing my collection if you reply giving me you email address. Thanks.

Franky

[skabooya]

120gals wow. That would be amazing. I would want to do that too but the lighting costs would kill me I think. I learned macro needs a lot higher lighting than people give it credit for.

I would love to see your tank. Im sure others would too.

[ferret]

Not really I found some red macro algae do much better at shady area. The T5 lighting fixture like the Tek light 48" 4x54W 4 tubes I have been using is good enough for most green & red algae except the brown ones. However, I just upgraded to my new DIY Led light fixture.

[skabooya]

Yea I would love to do a larger macro tank. I would still need it at 36" but maybe deeper. If I cant keep Sargassum alive in my tank then im going to look at getting a larger tank and basically just re-use what I have. although I really really love my tank right now so i dont see myself upgrading anytime soon :)

[ferret]

Keeping the sargassum ( brown algae ) is quite challenging for it requires constant cooler temperature unless you are equipped with chiller and it can survive in most reef tanks. ( but nobody will like to have this huge plant to block up the light and killing the corals ). I usually can keep this algae with dosing of iodine for a few months and the plants wither away somehow in summer.

[skabooya]

Theres a guy over on nano reef Ive been talking to that is propagating sargassum in his sump. I was going to buy some off him and hes doing nothing special. Typical water temps, params, etc and the stuff is spreading like crazy.

If this one doesnt make it in my tank then Imnot going to bother with trying it anymore. Its so nice though I hope it does make it.

[ferret]

I'll love to learn more about the details & any photo?

[skabooya]

Sure, hes on nano reef and heres the link to his tank: http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=245998

Some info is not posted in his thread however. Lots was from us e-mailing eachother back and forth.

[ferret]

Thanks for directing me to the post. Yes that's another type of sargassum and the shape of the leaves is different from the type I had kept before. I'm going to order some if available definately!

[skabooya]

Yes I was going to order one from him too as well as some gorgonians but he figured the shipping time was not good for the livestock so shipping ended up not being an option.

[skabooya]

Its only been a few days but already I am seeing some growth. My sargassum is sprouting some new leaves all over, my calpura prolifera has little leaf buds all along the stems and the unknown calcilferous macro has white tips all over like an birdsnest sps. My softies are getting pretty happy too, ive never seen them so puffed up and happy looking :)
Ive noticed some new macros too. They are hitch hikers. Theres one that looks like a fern on the end of a palm tree trunk and another that looks like cheato but its in straight stalks as if the cheato was grass.

I havent seen the starfish since that day but I expected that. Hopefully things keep up and stay healthy and thrive. :)

[skabooya]

Yet another sad few days. This thread is getting depressing.
My grandmother (Vavo in portuguese) passed away. I was very close to her. She pretty much raised me until i was 14 because my parents worked so much. Even then I visited her often. Shes been so sick lately. In the end she was in so much pain. Her body was giving up on her and in horrible ways. Im glad shes not suffering anymore but Im sad that shes gone. She was the only one in my family I had nearly everything in common with. She and my dad were the only ones to ever make me feel special, to ever be proud of me; and now they are both gone. In the last 2 1/2 years we have had 6 family deaths. 5 have been personal to me.
I hope this stops for the next few years. Our family needs a death break.

[fishytime]

Very sorry to hear this..... My condolences :sad:

[ferret]

Sorry to hear this unhappy incident & I share the feeling for my father had passed away last year.

[skabooya]

Thank you for your kind words. Two of my collegues have passed this week as well and a third is in critical condition. One passed from brain cancer. She found out about it and passed in less than a week. The other two were from a car accident. One died at the scene and the other is in Vancouver hospital in critical condition. Just horrible. :(

On a slightly brighter note, I found and caught the crab that was in my tank. After some research I believe it to be a spider decorator crab. He definitely 'decorated' himself pretty well. He actually creeps me out so Im going to see if the lfs wants him. I am no on the lookout for my pep shrimp I recently purchased. I havent seen him in a few days so im hoping hes just hiding and the crab didnt get him. We shall see.

[MKLKT]

Yikes, my condolences. I can't even imagine having to have that many deaths so close to home. Peppermints often hide (well), I have 2 and rarely see them but they are there.

[skabooya]

Update.

This picture has not been altered in any way. Im just showing the growth Ive had.
Anyone want some macro ? :)

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/skabooya/Aug1520112.jpg

[ferret]

You have created a good environment for keeping pipe fish if you'll like give a try. For curious, what type of algae at the uppermost of the tank at left hand corner and middle is that sargassum?

[don.ald]

well, you have certainly mastered the macro display! looks great.

[skabooya]

Upper left, are you talking of the red macro? If so thats common red halymenia, not the pretty orange tipped dragons tongue, although I do have that too. If your talking about whats floating and is orange/brown/yellow then thats sargassum. :)

I actually really want to try pipefish or seahorses but the cost is not to my liking and I dont feed live foods, just a variety of pellets and coral foods.

And thank you. It certainly has become a macro tank. I love it. My family comes to see it and they say its beautiful and think its all corals lol. I tell them no its algae and they respond, isint algae bad?

Yes yes it is, but im a bad girl :P

[RESONANCE]

Groovy lookin tank ska ;^). Nice to see it mature so fast! You dosing anything special?

[skabooya]

just dosing what I said above. KNO3, KH2PO4, iron, trace elements, amino acids, calcium/mag, baking soda, iodine, and of course weekly feedings of various coral food and daily feedings for the fish. :)

Havent changed the water in months.

[RESONANCE]

HOLY SH*T! That's alot lol. All I dose is Iron. What type/ brand of ammino acids do you use/ dose? And where do you get them?

[Boomboy]

the tank looks awesome when its overgrown like that. you should try and scape using the macro to create a zen garden or some kind of picture with tit.

[skabooya]

Thank you. :D
I use seachem for pretty well everything because its cheaper and I used Kent Iron again because it was cheap lol.

Yes I want to scape it which is harder to do with faster growing macros. As you can see it needs a major trim which I plan to do very soon.
Currently Im leading Drama Camp for a group of 17 kids. We are having a preformance at the end so I am swamped for the next 2 weeks. But im hoping that this weekend I will have my trim day.

Im noticing a lot of hitchhiker macros that are growing now. I like em.

[skabooya]

Took a few more shots today while my son was having a nap.

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/skabooya/Aug1620115tank.jpg

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/skabooya/Aug1620111macro.jpg

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/skabooya/Aug1620113macro.jpg

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/skabooya/Aug1620116macro.jpg

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/skabooya/Aug1620117halymenia.jpg

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/skabooya/Aug1620119topdown.jpg

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/skabooya/Aug16201110sargassum.jpg

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/skabooya/Aug16201111macro.jpg

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/skabooya/Aug16201113redfeather.jpg

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/skabooya/Aug16201114colourful.jpg

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/skabooya/Aug16201116dragonstongue.jpg

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/skabooya/Aug16201118halymenia.jpg

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/skabooya/Aug16201119halmediaoptuna.jpg

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/skabooya/Aug16201120mushroom.jpg

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/skabooya/Aug16201121macro.jpg

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/skabooya/Aug16201122sargassum.jpg

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/skabooya/Aug16201123sargassum.jpg

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/skabooya/Aug162011macro24.jpg

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/skabooya/Aug162011calpuraprolfera25.jpg

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/skabooya/Aug162011calpuraprolifera26.jpg

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/skabooya/Aug162011grapecalpura28.jpg

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/skabooya/Aug162011grapecalpura29.jpg

[tang daddy]

havent seen this tank in awhile...looks like all the macro filled in nicely, great job!

[lastlight]

And to think this would be a nightmare in any other situation! That looks pretty cool. I'm sure since you've decided you want algae, it by default becomes harder to keep alive lol.

[fishytime]

the "au natural" look, looks great.....although I do like the neatly trimmed look:wink:

[skabooya]

Thanks all. Macro algae is really easy to keep if thats what your 'main' interest is. If its both corals and macro its a bit more difficult but it can be done. I have a few corals in my system and I want to add more, mainly mushrooms because they do so well. But im more slack about corals now and more in tune with the macro.

I typically like things trimmed espically when there are viewings but when no one is looking I let it all go au natural. ;P For your eyes only.

[skabooya]

So, Im strongly considering picking up 6 sexy shrimp and a candy pistol shrimp for the tank. What do people here think.
Currently there are 2 clowns and a peppermint shrimp as well as 2 hermit crabs in there.
Any Input ?

[fishytime]

So, Im strongly considering picking up 6 sexy shrimp and a candy pistol shrimp for the tank. What do people here think.
Currently there are 2 clowns and a peppermint shrimp as well as 2 hermit crabs in there.
Any Input ?

I would worry about never seeing them......being that there havnt been any recent viewings and things are a little on the wild side atm:wink::lol:......that being said I do love my "Sexy Shrimp"

[skabooya]

Macro is going NUTS! gonna send out a few packages now and hope that helps. I may have more up for sale soon too. Im going to be very generous to those that did order :)

Anyway I put my order in for 7 yes 7 sexy shrimp. :) I cant wait. I do already have a peppermint shrimp who is in LOVE with the macro in my tank. I see him out all the time in my red halymenia. Camouflage I guess. Pretty cool stuff.

[skabooya]

I want to cry when I see how beautiful my tank was. I got a new teaching Job in Sept. With that new job, taking care of my son and husband as well as the regular chores my tanks got neglected. The macro took over EVERYTHING! well I shouldn't blame all the macro. The grape calpura is EVIL! Stunning if it is well kept but I didn't have the time to trim weekly. It smothered everything including other macro. It killed off a lot of my nice macro and some of my corals.
I went in and pulled EVERYTHING out of my tank. Including rocks. I pulled off every bit of macro I saw with tweezers and threw everything out except for the pretty macro that isint invasive. I cleaned EVERYTHING!
About 2 weeks later the grape calpura was back and worse than before. WHY!
I stopped dosing to starve the macro. It killed off nearly everything except the grape. I pretty much gave up.
I was looking for a tang to temporarily put into the tank to just clear it up.
Yesterday I pulled about half the macro again and today I will do the other half as well as a WC.
I can honestly say that it is finally starting to slow down. I do now have a lot of nuisance algae.
What I do like is how truly wild the tank looks now. It is very natural. Not man made natural, but coastal saltwater natural.
I am hoping that after this next big clean It will be under more control.

I noticed A LOT of snails, I didnt have before. NICE! and my mushrooms are COLOURFUL! They were in near complete darkness. Also, the green grape that was in the dark didnt really grow.

It gave me an idea. I now have enough lighting for sps. I want height in my tank as well as a lot of shade for my mushrooms.
MONTI CAPS! I tried a couple before, but I only had just enough light and the frags were constantly knocked over, so they didn't make it.
Now, I have a plan. Mount it DIRECTLY to the rock, right at the top of the tank instead of just waiting for them to stick, themselves :) They can completely shade the lower part of the tank making my mushrooms pretty and my keeping the green macro at bay. YAY!
Then for height, some very easy to keep sps like birds nest.
I really want some photosynthetic gorgs, but I still cant find any :(

This tank is going through a transition and I am actually getting excited about it. I hope it lasts.

[skabooya]

Alright, so the plan is to have something to control the grape caulpera. I would like to save my nicer macro algae.
I was reading around and a recommendation is emerald crabs. They are hit or miss, but at least its a chance. So, Im thinking one or two emerald crabs, and then when they get older I would trade them in. Although having crabs in the tank would just be so cool. :)
I'm going to do more research to see if it is worth the risk.
If that doesn't work, I will seriously consider a tang, but I really don't want one.
After that, Im going to tear everything down and sell or trade all my LR but keep my coral and just start over with normal LR and NO CALPURA.

Any advice ?

[hillegom]

If you got a tang, it would probably eat all the macro algae, or at least most of it. I had a yellow and he ate caulerpa.
The only thing I could suggest is get another tank, and keep the tang in there .
You would give him only the LR with the grape on it. After all the grape is gone, you could give the tang back to the LFS

[skabooya]

No chance on another tank. I dont have any room at all. As for the caulerpa ITS EVERYWHERE on every rock. If I put rocks in another tank one at a time and then replace, it will just spread onto the rock that was just cleaned. :(

[whatcaneyedo]

Hate to rub it in but...

Gracillaria is pretty non invasive and is a great source of red color. Thats the only one I would dare put into a display tank. Halimedia, chaeto, caulerpa, etc all have a way of taking over and are better suited to a refugium section of a sump.

Twice I've accidentally ended up with caulerpa in my display and it took a long time to get it out. Removing a few pieces of rock at a time and leaving them in a dark tub of water for a while worked alright. Some manual removal with tweezers was also necessary. There is no guarantee that a Tang will eat it either. They're hit and miss like most fish.

EDIT: J&L and Progressive Reef both have several varieties of photosynthetic gorgonians for sale right now.

[skabooya]

:P Yea I know. But I wanted and still would like a macro algae tank. Unfortunately it is much more management than I believed. You MUST trim weekly, no ifs and's or but's. Its gotta be religious trimming.

I can handle dosing and topping off no problem but weekly trimming took some time. I was in my tank for 30-45 min at least once a week trimming. Thats not including top offs and measuring the proper dosing amounts.

The grape weed just grows too fast. Everything else (except for pest algae) is pretty manageable. It grows slow enough or is strong enough where I could grab a chunk and rip it off the rock without much difficulty.

[MKLKT]

Foxface can also do massive clean-up of macro algae, any time I've had a frag or coral colony come in to my tank with any sort of macro hitchhiker it's gone within a day.

[skabooya]

Yup Ive been thinking about them but im worried about their poison as well as their ability to munch on lps and softies. I have some corals and I would like to keep what I have.

[skabooya]

The more I look at the tank, the more I just want to tear it down and start over. I have algae growing on everything and its not the pretty stuff either.
My husband does not want me to tear it down at all and just leave it as is because I did like it.
DID is the term to take note of. It depresses me now. :(

Im gonna see if the lfs will trade my rock for some of their rock and Im thinking of maybe getting all new sand as well to make sure there is no green grape in there at all. I just dont know. :(

The rocks I am almost positive on. I think it will be cheaper to trade it if I could.
Im also going to pick up another big jug of vinegar and soak my powerheads in it for a few hours to get rid of macro and such. Same thing with my skimmer.

So sad. :(

[skabooya]

Well, my stubborn side took over (that would be my dads genes). I am ordering 5 trocheus black foot snails, 1 emerald crab, 6 mexican red leg hermits and 2 more blue leg hermits. (to make 4 hermits) I will continue with manual removal, large water changes, no dosing any ferts, and only feeding two or three times a week and only a small amount. We shall see how this goes :)



On a side note I am also setting up a Hawaiian volcano shrimp species tank aka opae ula. Should I set up a separate thread/nano journal for this or just keep it here? hmmm ponder ponder ponder.

[skabooya]

BOOYA! CUC is ordered plus some photosynthetic gorgs :) YAY! Major WC is in the future for my tank tomorrow as well as a MAJOR pruning. Gotta get things presentable. :)
Then I think I will start dosing again to get the macro growing and hopefully it will starve out the nuisance algae.
Gonna start off really slow.

[don.ald]

Ok, how about some before and after pics?:mrgreen:

[skabooya]

*shudder* I dunno. My tank looks really really bad... and empty. Even my corals are suffering... except the shrooms. My goal is to bring my candycane back. Each head is 1/2 dead. Maybe I will take a pic. I dunno. It disgusts me.

[skabooya]

Right, so I did a 10 gal WC on this thing which is about 50%. Yes the tank is a 28gal but the rocks, equipment and sand take up volume so there is less than 28gallons of water in the tank.
(I know the majority of you know this but I am just stating this again for those that are unsure and because a couple of my students wanted to look at my tank :P )

I did a vinegar bath/soak, for my powerheads, and now my skimmer. It works wonders. All kinds of algae just melt in the vinegar and I use a toothbrush to just brush it all off under hot water. Comes off smooth like butter in a hot pan.

Waiting on my skimmer and then that will go back into the tank.
As I look in there I can see quite a few strands of grape calupera. I just want to stick my hands in there and rip more out but, I need to spend some time with the most important thing in my life. My son :)

Maybe tomorrow during his nap I will tear some more out of the tank.

[skabooya]

Right...so... here it is after a cleaning....
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/skabooya/DSC_9172.jpg



WAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

[skabooya]

Pulled some more macro today. It was pretty difficult as there isn't much to grab onto. On a good note, my candy cane and frogspawn are puffing up very nicely. I'm not sure if it was the massive WC or the stirring of the sand bed releasing all the gunk into the water column. I know they loved it when I did that before, but I'm betting the WC helped out a lot. :)

[RESONANCE]

Hey Ska,

Been a while since I've checked up on your tank. Sorry to hear bout all your aquarium troubles! I'm glad you haven't given up yet. Being a saltie - there's tons of rewards but also some real tough lessons to learn both emotionally and financially for a 'light' hobby.

In terms of the choice of macros, especially caulerpa - one has to be careful in chosing the varieties. I've found any for of caulerpa racemosa (espcially any form of grape caulerpa -var. pelata) and caulerpa prolifera (ex: knife caulerpa) to be especially aggressive. Others include sawband caulerpa and sometimes C. Mexicana.

In your tank's best interest, I would very strongly suggest you get rid of all your live rock and sand that was covered by your grape caulerpa. From experience both Grape caulerpa and Knife caulerpa can re-grow from just a few cells (root, stem, any sort) clinging in a fissure in your live rock. So for months after you think you've cleaned it all out, suddenly you may experience a re-birth/ explosion of this nuisance macro. I know it seems like such a waste of money/ live rock but think of it this way, by throwing them out now, you're saving yourself a ton of future grief and heart ache. You can always re-use your old live rock after you've let it dry thoroughly for about 3+ months.

As for having to spend money on new live rock - look at it as if it's a fresh start. To save some money, you can buy a third of the amount you need live and the other 2/3s dry rock/ man made which will be seeded by the new live rock.

In terms of suggestions for future macros, the safe forms of caulerpa in my experience are Caulerpa Paspaloides (Palm Caulerpa) and Caulerpa Cupressoides (Cactus Caulerpa). Both are comparatively slow growing and easy to manage. In addition, they look nicer than most other caulerpas :).

[skabooya]

Thanks.
I'm gonna try this first. Honestly I don't mind the grape, I just wish it didn't take over like it did. I loved the look of it. If the cuc can help at all then I will just keep up with that, otherwise I will just have to remove all the sand and LR and start over, which is what I was thinking of doing to begin with anyways, but I'm stubborn. :P

[RESONANCE]

Nothing wrong with the 'look' of grape caulerpa - in fact I agree it's nice in appearance. It's the aggressively growing behavior which I'm wary of. The ability of it to choke out any rival type of macro algae as well as coral by the sheer speed and volume of its growth...Thus resulting in your need to prune them weekly.

:laluot_32:

I swear, if my macro tank was as labor intensive as your macro tank, I would have quit long ago lol. Weekly pruning of macros? Pshhh far too much work for me lol. Macro algae tanks are meant to be easier to handle and ARE easier if done the right way. Pruning in my tank is more like once every 2 months or so... at it's worst I had to do it once a month.

Just trying to make you see reason loooool. Then again, to each his or her own I suppose.

Cheers!
:cool:

[skabooya]

Yup, I didn't mind the weekly trimming. I actually like to work on my tanks. Its relaxing, but now I have a toddler and we are planning on another one and its not relaxing anymore. I just don't have as much time. I still love macro tanks, but the grape just takes over. The calupra prolifera just cant compete, although now I'm hoping it will get a foothold but we shall see how things go.

I notice that after being squished the grape calupera goes pale and dies. The only places it seems to crop up are from the tips of stems. I'm wondering about taking a brush to the whole thing and squishing the lot of it. It cant get any worse than it is now... (famous last words).

[skabooya]

My shipment comes in today. YAY! I had a good look in the tank and it looks more bare than before.... hmmm A lot of the green grape is disintegrating, while others are still green. I have noticed a few stem tips are starting to grow so I will rip those out today and squish the rest of the stem that I can see. I dunno what is going on, but I like it :).
Even my calpura prolifera is melting. :( Which I don't like but, focus right now is to get corals back to health and get grape back to a manageable state or gone.
My frogspawn is puffing up very nicely and my candycane is very puffy again :) Needs some time to heal itself and cover the exposed skeleton. I didnt see any feeders come out but when I do I will give it some num nums.
Next week I think im going to stir the sandbed like crazy and do another 50% WC. Im thinking that helped out quite a bit.

[skabooya]

Delayed... boo. I don't get it until tomorrow night.

[skabooya]

GOT MY SHIPMENT!!! Everything looks good, we shall see how things go. :)

[msjboy]

What gorgs did get? Picts plz.

Msjboy

[skabooya]

Isis gorg and Muriceopsis sp. (aka purple plume). Fully open this morning. Everything is doing well.
I will take a pic tonight.

[skabooya]

Pics are from this morning :)
Corals some doing very well, others healing nicely
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/skabooya/feb292012blueshroom.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/skabooya/feb292012greenzoas.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/skabooya/feb292012purplerhodactus.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/skabooya/feb292012candycanehealing.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/skabooya/feb292012greenmushroom.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/skabooya/feb292012blueric.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/skabooya/feb292012greenric.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/skabooya/feb292012skinnygorg.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/skabooya/feb292012Muriceopsissp.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/skabooya/feb292012isisgorg.jpg

Some of the livestock
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/skabooya/feb292012em2eraldcrab.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/skabooya/feb292012mexicanhermit1.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/skabooya/Feb292012clown.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/skabooya/feb292012trochusmexicanhermitclownbluemushroom.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/skabooya/feb292012clowng.jpg

[skabooya]

And now a question. WTF are those things on my gorg? There is a starfish wrapped tightly around the main stalk in the top left, and a praying mantis looking thing on the right of the picture. The praying mantis thing (there are lots) are firmly attached by holding on with their legs and then waving their arms around trying to catch whatever floats by. They look vicious. Mainly transparent, but some have dark stripes/blotches.
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a221/skabooya/feb292012wtf.jpg

[msjboy]

thanx for the updates. Watch out for strands of algae that might catch on the gorgs... it can quickly overwhelm it and kill it off.

Also, knowing you're a macro algae fan, here's a recent link on nano-ree that you might be interested for a read:
www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=279382&hl=macro+reef

he has just a 12 gallon tank.

He got a lot of his stuff from La reef... sigh....wish we could get some of the stuff.

regs
msjboy:wink:

[skabooya]

Thanks for the link. I LOVE macro tanks. :)

I had to move the big purple gorg in my picture to a lower flow area. The polyps were not coming out as much as they were before. Yesterday, not at all. My isis gorg has all polyps open and they haven't gone back in. She is happy where she is.
I noticed the very tips of the branches on my purple gorg are thinning. But only some of them. She is starting to go pale all over. I am wondering if she is about to shed? I dunno, but I blew her with the turkey baster to get any algae off (I didn't see any) and I moved her. The smaller purple gorg is in slightly lower flow and has some polyps coming out, but not all. We shall see how they do after the move.
I am planning on another WC today or tomorrow.
If that doesn't work, the gorg will go on the sandbed and then finally over to where the isis gorg is... well after that then I will put it at the back of the tank hiding behind the rock work :( Perhaps that will help it.

Those little mantis things on my gorg had babies. The majority of the adults die when they have babies I guess. A couple large adult's still remain. I also noticed 4 of those starfish things clinging to my gorg.

Are they harmful at all? I cant find any info on them. Should I dip in freshwater for 3 minutes?

[whatcaneyedo]

The sea stars look like harmless mini brittle stars. I've got a billion of them throughout my system. You bought some coral off of me two years ago so I'd be really surprised if some didn't hitchhike into your tank back then. Sorry I'm not sure about the other things but maybe you can find an ID on this page http://www.melevsreef.com/id/

[skabooya]

Yes they do look like brittle stars and yes I did inherit some from you which did explode in my tank lol. I love them. These guys on the gorg are pale however. Your brittle stars have dark stripes, these are like the albino version. They are pale pale pale brown striped.
My gosh it has been two years. My, how time flies. I need to go to PG and see your tank again :)
Thanks for the link. I will have a look around.

[skabooya]

Gorgs are okay. Turns out they were shedding. My Isis has finished but, my 2 purple gorgs aren't done just yet.
On a side note. My 2 year old T5HO bulbs blew. So, now I only have 2 almost 1 year old bulbs going. I hope my corals don't suffer too bad while we wait until next week for the replacements to show up.
Honestly though, I though they would last longer than 2 years.
I know the majority replace bulbs yearly. I do buy yearly but I just move them over so I am running 2 new bulbs and the other two that are a year old. My tank is supposed to be a macro tank so a change in bulb spectrum isn't bad.

[skabooya]

Everything in the tank is looking pretty good now. Im wondering if things are starting to get stable again. I hope so. Gorgs are doing very well. Mushrooms are nice and open and my other coral are almost completely healed and are nice and plump :)

My opae ula have calmed down but they have their moments of swimming around like crazy. My son asks to see the "simp" and the "Fiss". He loves my salty tank and my opae ula tank :)

Im wondering what to do with my 32gal freshwater. Its a mess and neglected, but completely stable and has the same fish in it as when I first set it up. Ive only lost 2? in almost 5 years. Pretty good :) I expect die offs soon though. Tetras life span is comming to an end, angel should last another 5 years or so if I'm lucky.